Zootopia: Unexpected Shortcomings
by Damie243
Summary: It has been a year-and-a-half ever since the end of the Night Howler case with Nick and Judy growing a loving relationship between each other that must be kept out of the public eye to protect their careers and prevent close friends from suffering the same scrutiny. This was done well and life went on normally, but an unexpected occurrence will drive them into strange situations.
1. Chapter 1: Mid-duty Break Affections

**DISCLAIMER: Zootopia is owned by Disney. This fanfic is written by me (Damie243).**

 **Chapter 1: Mid-duty Break Affections**

 _ **Savannah Central, 11:30 am, Wednesday**_

* * *

It was a beautiful day within the Zootopia's central hub.

The sky was nearly cloudless, leaving the clear sight of its endless blue expanse to undisturbed for all eyes to see, along with the sun intensifying that beauty by shining it's very hot rays of light to the city bellow. This gave the Savannah Central the trademark heat it was well-known and popular for, being a favorite place for mammals that were accustomed scorching hot environments. Buildings all around the district reflected the light off of their structures, brightening the vast array of colors that were painted onto their construction, adding more local senses of fascination for those to witness; especially those that loved heated temperature. However, animals of all species tend to come to the district, regardless of their own race's environmental preference. Being Zootopia's downtown center, it held many places and zones of importance, causing many individuals from other locations within and out of the city's borders to relocate to this particular district for employment opportunities and tourism.

Regardless of the reasons, the residents of the city held plenty of love and respect towards Savannah Central just like they would with the other districts in the mammal-filled metropolis.

Speaking of the city's resident's, almost every walking space in the hot downtown center was filled to the brim of them. Mammals of all shape and sizes, native to the district or not, were casually strolling around the open streets in large crowds, getting to their destinations with no signs of urgency. Many were doing their daily tasks or getting to their workplaces, others were just having fun by hanging around the parks; chatting amongst each other and eating icecream, or just simply playing around. Also, every ginormous broadcasting screen was showing recorded music videos of Gazzel's latest hits, blaring her songs to the excited denizens under a lot of high volume. This was the usual day in Savannah Central, the kind of activity that made this part in the city to be very much alive and give off the aura of excitement to newcomers that just came right out of the station.

For some, it was more scary than exciting, as they were not used to relocating to such a new surrounding such as this, especially with prejudices and interspecies tensions still a thing. Fortunately, with the firm conclusion of the Night Howler case a year-and-a-half ago, people all around Zootopia have begun to be more open-minded and accepting of each other's differences. Of course, they haven't dropped all of their biased views entirely, but merely became more tolerant of each other, which was still considered a great change to start with. Many acknowledged that it won't take one night for everyone to drastically switch off their old views; it'll take much more than that. However, seeing the effects of some people from different species wanting to bring those positive changes much quicker by forming much closer bonds to one another has brought a stronger air of hope for the majority of the city's residents.

Judy Hopps was currently in her police cruiser, parked right outside of an icecream café as she waited for a specific sly fox to pick up some frozen treats for them. She just sat on her seat, resting her chin on her left arm that lay out of the door's open window, feeling the warm savannah wind brush against her fur.

This moment of peace was interrupted as her cellphone rang loudly in her uniform's pocket, snapping the rabbit officer to snap out of her phase in relaxation and check on the device.

 _Incoming Call from Mom & Dad_

Judy looked at the screen with a smile, which was showing a nice picture of her parents, granting her a familiar feeling of love and warmth, before answering the call and activating the video setting, seeing the recording images of her parent's smiling faces.

"Hey mom! Hi dad!" The rabbit officer greeted the two in excitement.

" _Morning, Judy!"_ Her parents responded simultaneously.

" _Now how's our lovely burrow-born ZPD Officer doing today? Caught any ruffians red-handed in their crimes?"_ Judy's father, Stu, asked in his usually proud enthusiasm.

" _Stu, you can't always expect our daughter to catch criminals on a day-to-day basis,"_ her mother bickered the male rabbit with a frown. _"Zootopia is a big place and she's doing her best to protect the city, and is most importantly: SAFE. That's all that matters."_

"Hey, _hey_ , it's okay mom, you know dad means no harm on that, and thank you for the support," Judy reassured her mother in a tenderly tone, before returning her attention to her father. "And no, dad, not a lot of action has been happening lately. Everything is pretty peaceful so far, the only scuffles me and Nick get into usually involve the ruckus that happens in most Grump rallies and traffic jams."

" _Speaking of. . . Nick. . . how is he? He hasn't mistreated you in anyway, right?"_ Stu asked with visible uneasiness showing in his voice and facial expressions.

" _Stu!"_ Bonnie nearly shouted at her husband in anger.

Judy wasn't too surprised by this, even with the end of the Night Howler incident and Nick's recruitment of becoming the ZPD's first fox police officer, her father was still hesitant with the idea of his daughter working with the vulpine. It's obvious that he still held on to the old and somewhat prejudice views, but it was also mixed into worrying over her personal safety. Her mother was _almost_ identical to her father in terms of these kinds of things, but was able to become more accepting towards the reality of Judy liking to work with the fox after some time pondering about it.

She acknowledged that her father was simply looking after her own well-being (to her annoyance), and old biased views don't go away overnight. She learned that much by the conclusion of Bellwether's schemes revolving the Night Howlers, and was still learning more about it by the coming days. It wasn't too surprising to see her own father still in the process of accepting the concept that she and Nick Wilde were good friends, and has made some slow progress.

Unfortunately, he still held on to his obvious paranoia about many foxes outside of Bunnyburrow being potentially aggressive and dangerous to them (with the exception being Gideon Grey and his family). It's usually this kind behavior, including his lingering hostility towards Nick that would get on her nerves and fill her head with hot-blooded anger.

Ever since the both of them were assigned as partners in the ZPD, they've been spending lots of time together. Whether they were in or out of work, the two of them would always be seen side-by-side, nearly inseparable even. Because of this, the unlikely duo have turned into something that was far more than just friends, and formed a strong bond that many never thought could actually exist. This resorted to Judy becoming more 'protective' over Nick, especially whenever she witnesses any kind discriminatory behaviors targeting foxes (especially towards her partner in particular).

Fortunately, she has grown to be more tolerant against them, despite those same kinds of prejudices still getting on her nerves from time-to-time. As being a police officer in the ZPD, it's required to be resistant to the aggressive attitudes that a cop would face from people.

"No, dad, Nick hasn't mistreated me, at all. And he is doing just fine, he's getting some icecream, right now," Judy answered casually, really wanting to prevent another argument to happen between her parents, while trying her best not to roll her eyes in irritation.

" _Well, that's good! That's, uh, good. . ."_ Stu replied awkwardly as he scratched a spot behind his head.

" _Honey,"_ Bonnie addressed her husband, but was back to her calm self _"I think I hear some of the kids playing too close to the tractors again. You should probably. . ."_

" _Oh, right, right! Well, Judy, looks like I have head back outside, but it was dandy talking to you again,"_ Her father said adamantly, losing his worrisome awkwardness from earlier. _"Be a good girl and keep them city folk safe."_

"Alright, bye dad! Talk to you again next time," Judy bid her father a kind and happy farewell before he left, leaving her with only Bonnie on the screen of her phone.

" _You know he doesn't hold any actual ill feelings towards Nicholas, right?"_ Her mother asked with a sympathetic frown.

Judy responded with an irritated groan as she placed her free hand on her forehead, finally feeling some relief by letting out all of the built-in anger from earlier. "I know, mom. But it still gets to me, you know?"

" _I'm well aware of that, dear, but you know he's just looking after you. The idea of you being that close with a fox is still a little concerning for the both of us, especially for your father."_

"But what about Gideon? The both of you have been working with him for a while now, and dad's actually comfortable with having him around."

" _Judy, you know that we've known Gideon for a long time, and he lives not that far from our farm, so we see him almost every day. And not to mention you've never dated him."_

"Yeah, that's true," She groaned in acceptance.

" _And you know that it will take a while for your father to be more accepting towards other foxes in general. Do take note that he's making some slow progress."_

"I just wish it could all come to him a lot faster," the rabbit police officer replied as she rubbed her forehead. "You guys met him. You know he's a great guy."

" _I know, dear, I know,"_ Bonnie continued in her sympathetic tone, trying to ease the stress of her daughter. _"But like I keep reminding you. . ."_

"Old habits die hard."

" _Exactly, Judy. And lots of us rabbit folk in Bunnyburrow have lived with the fear of foxes for lord knows how long, so it will still take more time for someone like your father to change out of that outlook."_

"Yeah, you have a point," Judy stated with a tired frown.

" _Don't I always?"_ Bonnie asked teasingly, a smile curled on her face. This somewhat surprised Judy, mostly because this would be the kind of playful demeanor she expected from Nick.

The younger rabbit couldn't help but giggle in response to the teasing question, bringing back the energetic joy back into her system. "Yeah, always."

" _Good that you know that, dear."_

"Hardy, har, har, mom."

" _Anyway, I think I should get going. Your pa may need some help looking after the kids outside, and I think it's time I should let you be."_

"Okay, mom, thank you so much for the call. I'll call you guys back when I'm off my shifts, as usual."

" _Goodbye, Judy. Remember to be careful, and be safe. Love you, and tell Nicholas that I said hello."_

"I sure will!" She beamed with an enthusiastic smile. "Again, thanks for the call. Love you too, and goodbye."

" _Take care of yourself, honey,"_ Bonnie bided her last, motherly farewells before finally disconnecting the call.

With the call over, Judy was left to her herself once again, and placed the phone back in the same pocket she would usually leave it in. The rabbit officer went back to what she was usually doing, waiting for her partner while leaning her head outside of her open window. She took advantage of the alone time she had by just relaxing in her own cruiser, feeling the warm savannah winds blow through her head, and finding some relief from the background noise of the many mammals moving around the city.

Despite being an animal that were known for their sensitive hearing, she didn't find the loud sounds of the city too bad for her ear-drums. On the contrary, she _loved_ it all. Ever since she first stepped out of the train station a year-and-a-half ago, she felt an immense amount of exhilaration flooding her body once she finally walked out of the building and listened to roaring noise of everything around her. She remembered it all well and still finds the racket of thousands of animals in one place, yelling, shouting, singing and having boisterous fun just as enjoyable as the first time she experienced it. Of course, there would be times when the areas she and Nick were patrolling in would become so loud that it would start to inflict harm on her (or both of their) hearing, resorting the bunny to put on ear protection.

"Special delivery for a lovely Officer Carrots," said a recognizable voice coming from outside of the car, an orange and brown paw holding a cup of icecream in front of her face.

The cup was pretty big in size, bigger than her own two hands combined, and was adorned with rainbow-like patterns. Two large scoops of the orange and white colored dairy treats were filling its insides up to the brim, making it appear that they could start falling out the edges any minute. Red sprinkles littered the surface of the cold delights like party confetti, and small gummies the shape of baby carrots were scattered amongst the sides. A white plastic spoon laid on the very top, it's flat head was stabbed deep inside of the top scoop with the handle sticking out.

Looking at the icecream any further was already making her mouth water, so she quickly grabbed the large cup with two paws and yanked it away from the other hand it was previously held on.

"Thank you!" Judy said with pure glee as she rest the hefty cup full of icecream on spot between her legs on the seat, then proceeded to eat large spoonful's of the cold delicacy, purring in delight.

"You're welcome," Nick replied as he walked to the other door of the police cruiser, his usual sly smile plastered on his face. "And they say foxes tend to have the best paws for swiping," he mumbled, jokingly, in his usual attitude.

Judy just ignored the comment, being used to the fox's sarcastic sense of humor, and resumed eating her cold treats in enjoyment and pleasure.

Meanwhile, Nick Wilde made it into the large police cruiser by going through the other side, closing the door as soon as he made sure his tail made it into the vehicle with him. Afterwards, he pivoted himself on to Judy's seat to get closer to her, while trying his best to not spill any of his own icecream in the car's interior.

Like a majority of vehicles used by the ZPD, they usually tend to be large, heavy and bulky. This was because many police officers working within the force tend to be from species of animals that were both hefty and robust, granting a significant amount of equipment to accommodate their respective sizes. The cruiser's chairs were built to withstand the size and weight of elephants, which had just enough elbow room for Judy and Nick to share the driver's seat together without concerns for space. Also, their current car was given modifications to suit the needs of their immense size difference with the automobile itself, like an easier to reach steering wheel, higher elevated pedals and brakes, and so on.

Nick Wilde was wearing his on-duty police uniform, just like his partner beside him. A blue collared shirt with long sleeves and matching black pants, his favorite reflective sunglasses placed right above his eyes, allowing his emerald eyes to be visible for all to see.

"Enjoying it, carrots?" He asked as he began to eat a spoonful of his blueberry-filled icecream.

"I'm _loving_ it! Thanks again, Nick!" She answered with a lot of satisfied enthusiasm, before continuing munching down on her cold dairy treat.

"You already thanked me once, carrots, no need to repeat it," the fox mused with his usual demeanor as he kept eating his sweet dessert. "Again, you're welcome."

For the next few minutes, everything was silent between the two of them. The only sounds being made from the inside of the police cruiser were the two officers enjoying their cold and creamy treats. They would playfully nudge each other's elbows or push one another in teasingly ways while they ate, wanting to have a bit of fun while they still had the time too.

"Whoa, slow down there, carrots," Nick cautioned cordially, watching his friend devouring her icecream with such speed and vigor. He could see that she was almost done with the whole cup, leaving only about an inch of what's left of the cold treat on the bottom of the paper bowl.

But that's not the only thing that got his attention.

Judy's muzzle was a mess. Some of the red sprinkles scattered amongst the fur around her mouth, and a couple _somehow_ ended up on the area between her eyes. Not only that, but the edges of her mouth had smudges of melted icecream that was beginning to ooze down her chin, making it look like slime was splattered on her face.

A part of Nick actually wanted to facepalm as a reaction to the results of his partner's messy eating, but just couldn't. The dominant side of him found it all to be more adorable and even cute, only leaving him with his usual sly smirk. However, it was more of a kind, genuine smile instead of the typical smug grins that many would often see him do.

"We're not joining up for an eating competition, so it's okay to take it slow," he continued as he got the female rabbit's attention. "I think you've shown that icecream a thing or two on what it looks like for a rabbit to have the appetite of a lion. And eating that fast could get you brain freeze."

"Har, har, har, _Officer Wilde_ ," Judy replied smugly, slowly swaying her hips on her seat with playful seduction. "It will take more than brain freeze to put down this bunny."

"I see that, because it already started with your face. Go look at the mirror."

Judy briefly stared at the fox with a look of stunned curiosity, then proceeded to bring her head back out the window once again, using the side mirror to see her reflection. Her eyes widened a little out of surprise and minor embarrassment, but just saw the current mess on her face to be more hilarious than concerning.

"Oh, my bad," Judy said sheepishly with a slimy smile and an adorable giggle.

"Good thing I keep these around just in case." Nick bent over and reached to the floor below their seat, bringing up a cyan blue box that had images of a baby Zebra on all sides. "Foalpers' Baby Wipes for all our sticky bunny needs."

"Really, Nick? _Baby_ wipes?" Judy asked with humorous curiosity.

"Hey, as long as it could clean that messy face of yours, then yeah, _really_ ," He said as he opened the lid and pulled out a few wet wipes.

"They were meant to clean _baby butts_."

"And they're just as good as cleaning a messy rabbit's face, so hold still."

The vulpine proceeded to dab the wet wipes on the rabbit's face, slowly and gently rubbing the sludge-like cream and sprinkles out of lagomorph's fur, while also cleaning them with the stored liquid. He took his time with this, wanting to be sure that he didn't miss a single spot as he amiably rubbed his friend's cheeks and mouth, and finally finishing it off by wiping the sprinkles out of her forehead.

Normally, Judy would've just taken the wipes and do all of the cleaning herself, but after spending so much time with Nick on and off work hours, and getting to know much more about each other as close friends, she gave more than enough trust for him do such an action like this. And from what the fox could tell, she was definitely enjoying the physical contact, just as much as he was.

"And there you go, all done," Nick said as he took the now dirty wipes away from her face and threw them in a plastic bag where they throw all of the garbage in, along with her empty cup. He looked back to see the progress he made on the current state of his partner's muzzle, only to continue smiling from the feeling of satisfaction.

Judy's face was back to being clean and clear like earlier, all of the sludge and sweet specks of debris were no longer present, only leaving the adorably sweet and beautiful smile that the fox always _loved_ seeing. However, her fur was noticeably darker in tone and damp from the disinfecting liquid stored in the wipes, but that was to be expected with no worries.

The bunny cop leaned her head out the open window to recheck her reflection on the side mirror, only to return to the red fox's smug-like gaze with a bit of laughter, and smile he'd considered sweet. "Thanks, Nick, now my face is wet and smells like baby wash."

"Again, you're welcome, and I hear that a lot of women like the smell clean babi-" Nick stopped as he noticed that a pair of shocked mountain goats were watching them the whole time.

In hindsight, Judy knew exactly was going on by the time she spotted the stunned bovid pair awkwardly standing a few meters away from the front of their police cruiser.

They spent about a minute being absolutely speechless, filling the entire atmosphere that was painfully awkward and nearly insufferable for any of them to mutter a word. Nick and Judy were the ones suffering more, feeling lots of pained embarrassment for not even noticing _anybody_ walking around the area they were in. And knowing that they were parked close to the entrance of the icecream café, where _many_ could walk by and see them, only made the situation more unbearable. Bouts of fear and worry to clouded their minds, thoughts and imaginings of nightmarish scenarios that could have negative affects to their lives if word about this spreads throughout Zootopia. Thankfully, both of them managed to keep themselves together from outright panicking, but were still too stunned to say something.

"Hey! No standing on the crosswalk!" Judy commanded the two mountain goats in an authoritative voice, breaking the unbearable staring match and possibly scaring the bovid pair into thinking about something else. "If you have to cross the street, then cross the street! Get a move on before you cause traffic or get hit by a car!"

Scared by the rabbit officer's commanding outbursts, the two mountain goats broke their frozen gaze from the two police officers and hurried themselves across the street and out of their line of sight. This made both of the law enforcers to slump their bodies deep into the backrests of their seats as they let out a loud breath to relieve themselves, letting out all of the stress that built up inside their chests.

"Good save, Carrots."

"Get your seatbelt on, we're going to find someplace more private."

"You got it," the vulpine complied as Judy turned on the ignition and began to the drive the car off into the streets.

The drive was a relatively peaceful one, there wasn't any traffic or road congestion to speak of, so the roads were clear and offered a smooth ride throughout the next ten minutes. They passed through a couple places of interests, such going around a park and drove by some of the popular hotels in the whole district. Their car went through blocks that were heavily occupied by people of many species, the tall and big ones being the most noticeable to spot in the thick crowds. To the both of them, this wasn't very surprising as this particular district was one of the most visited and populated in the entire city. Adding to the fact that they were often stationed in Savannah Central for a majority of their patrol duties, Judy and Nick have gotten used to its atmosphere. However, there were still times that something would catch their attentions, luring their gazes into trances of joyful bewilderment. The lagomorph and vulpine may have seen a lot of things in the downtown areas, but there would always be something that could end up surprising them.

For the whole ride, none of them said a single word to each other, filling the interior of the police car with an uncomfortable silence between the two, with the exception of background noises coming from Judy's opened window. The racket came from crowds of Zootopians that they drove by. The two police officers were too occupied with their thoughts on what happened back in the icecream café. Worries and strong senses of anxiety clouded their heads as they desperately tried to think of other things to distract their minds, hoping that could somehow make them forget about the whole thing. In many normal circumstances, seeing a man and woman, especially couples, playfully clean each other's faces wouldn't be such an eye buster. However, seeing that happen between a predator and prey species was considered extremely strange, an utter taboo to society amongst many, even. What made matters painful and humiliating for the duo, was that they were caught doing it while they were still in _uniform_. While they were still on break at the moment, two cops getting caught doing something like that could create a ginormous disaster to the entire police force if word of it spread throughout the populace, _including_ the media. It didn't help Nick and Judy knowing that they and their families would end up suffering the worst of the consequences in many terrible ways. Though, the further they drove, the more they relaxed, finding those situations more as paranoid assumptions and less likely to happen at this current rate in time.

After driving into one of the quieter locations in Savannah Central, Judy pulled the car over to a small parking lot that was placed directly behind an office building, and parked their cruiser to an empty spot all the way in the far back.

Nearly the whole parking lot was empty with the exception of two empty cars left in parking slots close to the rear entrance of the building. Not a single person was in sight, nor a voice could be heard, casting an air of peaceful silence that was further enhanced with the bustling of nearby trees; their branches being blown by the warm winds.

"A business parking lot, _cozy_ ," Nick commented as he casually looked around the vacant space through his window, ending the silence between him and his partner as he still tried to forget what happened earlier. He turned back to looking directly at his counterpart, his sly smile showing no signs of phasing. "I know you wanted to find somewhere more private, but never thought it would be behind an office building."

"It's not that far from where we're supposed to patrol and you can see there's practically nobody here for us to worry about," Judy replied, somewhat rushed and hurried as she slumped back on her seat's backrest, then pressed her palms deep into her forehead and let out a disgruntled groan. "How can we be so _stupid_?! Doing that in front of an icecream café of all places! If word of this gets out-"

"Hey, hey, cowgirl, take it easy. _Relax_ ," the vulpine attempted to assure his partner as he slowly reached out for her hands and pulled them away from her face, cradling and massaging them under his paws while looking into her purple eyes. They were sad and sulky, struggling with holding back the immense feelings of anxiety and fear but was not even close to bursting into tears, all he saw was her just trying to hold in a lot of stress. "No one is going spread word about this to _anybody_. Those two just caught us playing a bit with the wipes on your face, it may've been strange to them, but I doubt they will take it as a big deal."

" _Nick_!" Judy urged with wide desperate eyes, slightly leaning closer to the fox. "This could wind up being a big deal against _us_. Them seeing you cleaning my face wasn't the thing I'm worried about, it's that they saw us _loving_ it! Loving it like a couple! And what makes it worse was they caught us doing it in _uniform_."

" _Judy_. Relax. Please," Nick continued to reassure her with a comforting tone, his hands still clenching onto hers, gently rubbing them as a way to try and soothe the worries she was going through.

The female rabbit let out a quiet breath through her nose, causing it to twitch slightly, a sign that she was clearly afraid of something, according to what Nick has learned from all their time together. She broke eye contact with the fox, tilting her head down as she looked at nothing in particular, her shoulders lowered and felt heavier than before, a sad-looking frown the only thing present on her face. Her ears were drooped downwards, adding more the depressing atmosphere.

"Judy, please look at me."

She complied, her anxious and sad expression still unchanged.

"They didn't catch us making out, we've always kept that as a rule to NOT do while we're in active duty," Nick explained in a tone filled with lots of gentle care, obviously getting through to his friend. "All they did was catch me cleaning your face, probably thinking we were playing some really weird game or something, like winning against me in a dare, and us enjoying it. I doubt they're perceptive enough to see you loving it in anyway romantic."

"But I _did_ , and I made it pretty obvious to you."

"And _only_ to me, Carrots, not them. Besides, those goats look like young teenagers, all they can do is make this a debatable conversation in their high school."

"That's not making me any less worried, Nick, you're saying that they may still spread word about this."

"Doesn't mean anyone would believe them, and I did say it would be 'debatable'," he replied as he brought his face closer to hers. "And possibly hard to believe and skeptical. You know high school gossip, not meant to be taken seriously."

"Yeah. . ."

Nick brought himself straight back up to his seat, his palms still held on to the rabbit officer's hands. Next, he began to slowly pull her whole body closer to his side. She resisted a little for the first few seconds, but ultimately gave in by leaning her head and torso on his abdomen and tightly wrapped her arms around it. Nick took advantage of her current position by softly coiling his left arm right above the bunny's stomach, and gave a light tug, which she reacted the same way in turn.

While Judy has a habit for hugging and clinging on to her partner, something that everyone in the police department knows all too well about, this one was far different and usually done in secret between the two. This was no regular hug between friends or best buddies, this was an affectionate cuddle between lovers.

"Nick, we shouldn't be doing this. Not while we're on duty."

"You bunnies, always so worrisome."

" _Nick_."

"Relax, Carrots, the parking lot is still empty as a graveyard, and the car's input sound and video recorders are still broken. _No one_ is going to know," he said in a reassuring and caring way as he gazed down on her purple eyes. "And we're still on break, so we are not technically letting this get in the way with our jobs."

Judy just let out a tired sigh, before tightening her grasp on the fox's waist and slowly pushed more of her head and upper body on to him.

The fox carefully maneuvered himself to grant a better position for his close friend to rest herself on his abdomen, as well as giving room for his tail to actually lie on her waist. He heard her make a satisfied cooing sound, obviously telling him that she liked it, just as much as he liked the moment they were having right now. This made him continue to look down on bunny with his usual sly grin.

"C'mon, Carrots, smile for me."

She just made a light groan in response.

"You know it actually makes me sad seeing you like this."

"That's a surprise," she moaned with (obviously) light traits of sarcasm, causing Nick's earlier smile to quickly change into an unamused frown. His ears, once stood up and perky, now lowered all the way down to the back of his head.

"That's it!" He said loudly with a mischievous smile as he began to tickle his partner's stomach ravenously, causing her to laugh uncontrollably as she tried to push his arms away to no avail, and attempted squirm and shift herself out of the fox's reach but only gave him more exposed areas to target.

Nick continued doing this for another couple of seconds before finally stopping, leaving a tired rabbit on his lap gasping for air. "There you go, _now_ you're smiling."

"You jerk!" She protested somewhat angrily as she still tried to relax her breathing. "This is a _forced_ smile!"

"Not exactly forced since you're enjoying it."

Judy just made an irritated groan, then heaved herself back to the position she was at earlier; lying on the side of the vulpine's lower abdomen and wrapping her arms around his waist. Thankfully for her, Nick didn't really move much, making the process of repeating the position they've made together both easy and quick. Not before long, they were both back into each other's affectionate embrace.

"So, what's the other reason for parking us here?" Nick asked, shifting his gaze to the nearby tress for no apparent reason.

"Huh?"

"I can tell you didn't drive us here to avoid those teenagers or have a private cuddle session, sweetheart, so spill it."

"Sly fox."

"Indeed I am, Fluff. And I still want an answer."

"My parents called me while you were still in the café."

"Did something bad happen to anyone in the family?" Nick asked as he returned his sights to Judy's purple eyes, her previous smile gone back to a sad-like frown.

"No, no. Everything is back in Bunnyburrow still seems to be going well, they were just checking up on me is all," she answered with solemn smile as she tilted her head a little to have a better line of sight with the fox's face. "And mom wants me to let you know that she says hi."

"Tell her I got the message and I wish her well, but you're still not telling me what's making you like this."

"It's dad, he was asking on how you were doing."

"Now why would that sour my lovely bunny's day?" he cooed affectionately with his sly smile, bending his down closer to her eye level.

"He was also worrying if you 'mistreated' me in any way," she answered bluntly, an obvious tone of disgust when she said 'mistreated'.

"Oh." Nick backed off a bit in bewilderment.

"Yeah, now you know why."

After hearing that kind of answer, Nick wasn't too surprised. As much as he still hated it when others show dislike to people like him all because they're foxes, he could understand some of the other (non-racist) reasons. From what he knows about Stu Hopps, he still held some paranoid fear of vulpines, even remembering Judy mentioning that he wouldn't let her board the train to Zootopia without taking something from a bag full of anti-fox peripherals. The same could be said about her mother, but she was a little more willing to give a benefit of a doubt.

Nick knew that they never really had any actual hate towards foxes, just the occasional fear of the big unknown. He's been told that the Hopps family don't venture out of Bunnyburrow very often because of their responsibilities to the farm, as well as having to look over 276 children all at once. Not only that, but everyone in the town was so used to seeing each other almost every day. Sure, there were the occasional visitors and tourists but not many outsiders actually move in and settle. This meant that not a lot of big or exciting things usually happen in the rural farming town, aside from the usual fairs and public events, which he found pretty dull. Although, despite some of the obvious, old-fashioned racial tension that tend to occur between the predator and prey species, everyone got along virtually well.

To his surprise, Judy's parents partnered up with a fox named Gideon Grey a year ago, who they would help supply him with vegetables and fruit for his baking business. Nick found some comfort in learning that, knowing that a family of rabbits, who still held on to some irrational dismay towards foxes, actually built a mutually beneficial business partnership with a fox. While they _did_ know him for a long time, it gave Wilde a sense of contentment that they began to put some of their prejudice fears to rest. It became even better when he was told that Gideon was becoming more of a family friend, often being invited for dinner or to have fun with the kids during any free time he had.

He remembered the day when Judy brought him to Bunnyburrow to spend time with the Hopps family for a weekend, six months ago. When they first met him in person, his partner had to admit to them that they were both in an official relationship, something that ended up being awkward and uncomfortable. The vulpine clearly recalled Stu and Bonnie Hopps' reactions, their eyes widen in shock and jaws slacked open it looked like their mouths would break off from their heads and fall on the floor. In the middle of the astonished stares he was getting, the fox tried his very best to keep himself together by keeping a big happy (and awkward) smile as he tried to shake their hands.

These were one of those changes that not many took lightly, especially for people like Judy's parents. Interspecies relationships was still a social issue in today's society. Though, it was never considered an illegal practice, and tolerance for interspecies marriage has grown over the years, it was still a very touchy subject for many.

Afterwards, he attempted to get himself settled with the rest of the Hopps' family, with Judy's help of course. Wanting to gain more of their trust, he decided to help some of this partner's teenage brothers and sisters with some of the yard work around the farm. His girlfriend's parents found the offering odd and insisted that he didn't have to be involved with any of the day-to-day errands, mainly because he was a guest and only visiting for the weekend. But with some insistence of his own, mixed with his best friend's support, the two older rabbits gave him a rundown on the kind of tasks he could assist on.

Not used to the daily activities of farming, the work he got himself involved with was tiring and exhausting for the fox, leaving him completely drained of energy after the first two hours. This prompted Judy to poke fun at him for being a 'soft city-man', which turned into humorous bickering between the two.

Whether he actually acquired more of their trust in the end of all that effort he put himself through, was a bit unsure. Being good at reading people, he saw that he did get something good conveyed from them, but it wasn't anything spectacular. Nonetheless, he was just glad that they treated him with good decency, instead of viewing him as a criminal fox.

As they were halfway through with their stay in the Hopps' family residence, Nick made the decision to open up to Stu and Bonnie about his history as a conman back in the city. It was very uncomfortable to do, but he knew he had to do it if he wanted to stay on their good sides and prevent further problems between them and Judy. In the end, he told them his previous occupation in the past, him and Finnick hustling from one place to the next and getting involved in conning others to get the money to pay for their necessities. He wasn't doing anything dramatic or sappy when he told them about himself before being a police officer, he remained plainly honest to them throughout his admittance. Lastly, he finished off his involvement with the Night Howler case, meeting Judy for the first time and stopping Bellweather from completing her schemes to corrupt the relationships between predator and prey species in Zootopia. As well as letting them know how grateful he was to their daughter, how much he owed her for helping him get an actual career, and becoming one of the greatest friends he could ever have.

They took it relatively well, slightly better than he expected, possibly because he further proved them that not all foxes were deceiving liars and were just as good (and honest) as any other mammal, but he had a feeling that they already learned that from reuniting with Gideon Grey and his family. Of course, they still held negative feelings and skepticism from learning that he was con artist and committed scams before changing out of that life.

Stu Hopps was strongly against it and was very vocal on his opinions on those activities, but they weren't filled with rage or specist anger, he looked more disappointed and sad than anything else. While he still shown some anger for practicing that kind of profession in the past, not wanting Judy to be influenced (or harmed) from the elements of that kind of life, Stu actually thanked him for the honesty, something that definitely surprised Wilde. The fox further reassured him that he's no longer committing cons and wants to live out a decent life as a police officer with his daughter, which further soothed the male rabbit farmer's anger.

Bonnie took it a lot calmer than her husband, showing slight signs of distraught but nothing more than that. While Nick could feel the disgust coming from her as he admitted to being involved with conning, he also felt sympathy from her passively sorrowful gaze. Not only that, but she attempted to calm her husband during his disapproval outbursts, and even persuaded him to give the fox a chance because he's no longer involved with that life, and the fact their own daughter had good reasons to trust Nick into being a partner in the ZPD, and a boyfriend in a relationship. Of course, these attempts proved to not be much needed because Stu Hopps turned out to be much more reasonable than any of them actually anticipated, but the act of wanting to give Nick a _chance_ with their daughter in something like this was more than the fox could ask for.

Despite some of the good that came out close to the end of that conversation, it was obvious to Nick that the Hopps parents still held skepticism into how the relation could pan out in the end. They admitted themselves that seeing their own daughter being paired up with a fox wasn't something they'd be comfortable with, but were still willing to give it a chance as long as Wilde wouldn't end up harming her, and try to look after her in the best of his abilities.

Nick found it all understandable and agreed to them.

"Then you better tell him that I have mistreated you, alright."

"What!?"

"Mistreated you like this!" Nick brought both of his palms back on the rabbit's vulnerable underbelly and began returned to ravenously barrage her with tickles.

Like last time, Judy reacted by constantly tossing and turning her body to try and shake the fox's hands off of her, resulting her head falling back on to Nick's lap as she was uncontrollably laughing. Despite the rabbit officer's best efforts, her partner always managed to find another sensible spot to target in a very short notice, making those attempts worthless, like earlier. And no matter how hard she would push or slap his hands away, the vulpine just avoided them with ease and resumed tickling her with no signs of giving up.

"Nick, stop!" Judy shouted nearly through the top of her lungs, finally grabbed a hold of her partner's hands, evidently stopping him from making her laugh any further, and jumped on the fox's lap. Locking her eyes with his, staring at him with an irritated and serious gaze, while the fox just shrug it off with a smugly smile.

"Any closer and we would have to kiss."

Judy took one of her hands out of the grip holding the fox's arms at bay, and gave a hardy punch to his stomach. "Not after all that, Wilde."

"Ow. . ." He wheezed, while still maintaining his sly grin, albeit more painfully "Hit a little harder, why don't you."

"You really want me too?" She asked in fuming irritation as she clenched her fist for another punch.

"No."

"Good." The rabbit completely let go of the fox hand, and shifted her position on his lap, softly resting her back on his torso.

"It's a little hard to breathe when you're lying on me like this, Fluff."

"Aw, has the big bad fox gone _that_ soft for a measly bunny like me?" Judy teased in a sweet, challenging tone.

"Not in your life, sweetheart," the fox dared slyly as his breathing got better, slowly wrapping his arms around his girlfriend's stomach.

"You better not tickle me," the rabbit cop threatened as she grabbed her partner's wrists and squeezed them tightly.

"I won't, you already taught me what you will do if I go for a third strike."

"You better." She eased her hold on the vulpine's hands, allowing him hold on to her stomach in a lovely hug, and felt his paws gently rubbing it in a massage-like fashion.

"Doesn't mean I won't try to do it in the future," Nick nearly cooed as he rest the underside of his snout on the top of the rabbit's head, right between her ears.

"Then you better be prepared on how I could react to that, Wilde."

"Even when you threaten me, you're still adorable."

Judy ignored the sly remark as she really wanted to take the free time they have left to enjoy the soft affection they were having. For what felt like a minute or two, everything was completely silent between the two officers, once more. Unlike the silence they had earlier, this one was far more comforting as their worries in relation to the two teenage mountain goats were mostly gone from their heads; taking the remainder of their break time to relax in physical contact with each other.

"Feeling a lot better?" Nick asked soothingly, ending the second round of silence between him and his partner.

"In comparison to earlier, _so_ much better," she nearly cooed in delight.

"That's good, but I can tell something is still bothering you," he continued reassuringly, affectionately tightening his hold on the rabbit.

" _Yeah_. . ." Judy sighed somberly. "I just can't stand it when my dad is like that, you know? Still having that paranoid fear of you possibly mistreating me, and being afraid of most foxes in general. I know old habits like that are hard to get rid of. . . some more so than others, but he met _you_. You made sure that he and my mom got to _know_ you, see you what you really are, knowing that not all foxes are the red-sign dangers that rabbits should typically fear." She clenched her hands on her friend's palms, but lovingly this time. "I can't help it, but. . . it just gets to me."

"Come on, Carrots, he's your dad. And we both know him well enough to feel that he just wants to look after you."

Judy couldn't help but snort out a small laugh. "You are starting to talk like mom; she said the exact same thing on the phone."

"Oh? I always liked you're mom, she's more accepting to foxes than some of the other rabbits in Bunnyburrow."

"Like dad, she still has some of the old-fashioned fears, though."

"But she's better at casting it aside and actually gives people, like me, a chance to try and be settled with the family, instead of looking down on me under the typical stereotypes."

"Yeah, she is easier to get through in comparison to pa."

"Aw, now you're giving your dad very little credit. He wasn't that bad, he was actually a lot better than I thought, far better than how you constantly warn me about him."

"Yeah, you're right," Judy said with a giggle. "Happy to see that you two got along okay."

"He's a pretty good guy; there were some awkward moments. . ."

"Were they bad?"

"No, they weren't bad enough to worry your wittle head over," Nick teased with a smug smirk.

"Hmph!" The rabbit pouted as she crossed her arms in brief annoyance, but wasn't holding any anger.

"I may not see that well from up here, but it always looks cute on you, regardless on how mad you are."

"Jerk," she muttered angrily as she pushed the fox's arms off her body to the vulpine's surprise. Afterward, she stood on her hind-legs, careful to not too much pressure on Nick's lap as she turned around to face him, her purple irises locked on to his emerald ones. The rabbit reached out and grabbed the collar of her partner's uniform in a tight grip and pulled the somewhat surprised fox's snout on to her mouth.

Nickolas P. Wilde briefly looked at his girlfriend with wide eyes of confusion, before completely giving himself in and let his mind be filled with bliss. Next, he brought his paws up on to the bunny's back and gingerly pushed more of her towards him.

The two ZPD officers started to softly moan and purr to themselves as their minds were overtaken with the multitude of romantic sensations in the heat of the current moment. Eyes were closed as they slightly shifted the positions of their heads during the kiss, lips making contact with the fur around their jaws and finally circling back to the animals' mouths. Their noticeably slight rise in body heat and increased heart beats made the couple a little more vigorous in their make-out session while they push the rim of their lips on to each other. Small pecks and licks were placed on random spots around their faces, particularly within the close vicinity of the mouth area, and went downward upon each other's necks. Despite the activity that was going on between them, they still kept more than enough awareness to not take things too far and potentially hurt one-another. However, with the amount of times the lagomorph and vulpine pair had done this outside of the work environment, they've already learned all that they need to still romantically have fun and be naughty without worrying about any of them being hurt.

Normally, they would never do something remotely close to this during work hours for many obvious reasons and keep a strict rule to leave this kind of affection locked at home. But there have been a few 'exceptions' they could exploit in their favor of sneaking some very good smooches from time-to-time. Though, these 'opportunities' tend to be few and far between, which they don't mind because it enforces them to stay focused on their jobs during active duty.

They try not to focus on those kinds of thoughts as of right now, since they're already deep into their rounds of kisses and wanting to make the best of it before the time is up.

" _Dispatch to Officers Hopps and Wilde. Please come in. Over."_

And their time was now up.

Judy and Nick slowly separated their grasps of each other and let out some satisfied breaths, ears perked straight up on their heads in surprise from the radio. They briefly looked at each other's eyes, both of them giving one-another their own playful smile before the rabbit officer got off the fox's lap and grabbed the radio's transceiver.

" _Dispatch to Officers Hopps and Wilde. Again, please respond,"_ said the familiar voice of Clauhauser over the police transmission.

"This is Officer Hopps to Dispatch, Officer Wilde is also present, what do you need?"

" _The repair crews back in the Precinct finally managed to clear up some space in the garage to schedule a proper tech check-up for your cruiser, and they want it in now."_

"Aw, and I was starting to think those oil jockeys really want us to crash and burn in an auto accident," Nick joked in usual smug demeanor, which was responded with an annoyed punch to the shoulder.

"Thanks for letting us know about that, Dispatch. Anything else?"

" _Yeah, Chief Bogo wants to see you in his office for a new assignment, after you drop off your cruiser. I don't have any details about it, so you're gonna have to see him."_

"10-4, Dispatch, we'll be on our way."

" _Affirmative, I'll let the Chief know. See you two back in the Precinct."_

Turning the transceiver off and placing it back in its designated slot, Judy sat back in her spot on the driver's seat, put her seatbelt on, and activated the car's ignition, feeling the engines heat up and roar once again.

"Looks like break times over," Nick said while he fastened his seatbelt. "What a shame."

"We'll have more time to have fun back at home. We always do."

"Yeah, but this one feels a little more exhilarating, don't you think?" The fox asked with a big smirk on his face as leaned his head closer to his partner.

"Now I thought _every_ deep kiss we do is always exhilarating to you?" Judy asked back with a flirtatious tone and expression, while she also leaned closer to the vulpine.

"Oh they are, Fluff, they _are_." Nick rubbed the top of his snout on her chin in an affectionate matter, then placed one last loving kiss on her nose. "And you're really good at doing it."

"Sly fox."

"Dumb bunny."

After exchanging those last words, Judy drove the police car out of the nearly empty parking lot and out into the public streets to their new destination. The whole ride being silent between the pair once again, as they took the time to relax and contemplate on whatever new task that their Precinct Police Chief wanted them to do later.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Hello fellow readers! It is I, Damie243, the writer and friendly fanboy of Zootopia and the popular WildHopps shipping community.**

 **Typing this chapter has been a bit of a challenge and took a pretty long while, but I am more than satisfied with how it turned out in the end. There will be more chapters coming out in the near future, and I will start the next one as soon as possible, but that will take time. I want to make the plot (or plots) of this fanfic to come out as legitimately good as it can be, and I will have to devote a lot of time planning it. I'm not trying (or expecting) this to be one of the greatest Zootopia fanfics out there, but I do want to put a lot of effort into making this into a fanfic worth reading.**

 **I also want to say that I WILL have some personal OCs involved in the future, but Nick and Judy (as well as their relationship) will always take a vast majority of the spotlight.**

 **Anyway, thank you very much for taking your time to read the beginning of 'Unexpected Shortcomings' and there will be more chapters to come.**

 **Lastly, PLEASE leave a review and some constructive criticism because I would appreciate that GREATLY. There are times that I am blind to errors, so I need help finding them before doing proper corrections. But PLEASE be kind and patient while you're giving out criticism; I won't be very motivated when you are yelling out at me.**

 **Anyway, I'll try to get the second chapter out as soon as I could, but no promises**

 **Thank you for reading,**

 **Damie243**


	2. Chapter 2: Time At The Rally

_**Disclaimer: Zootopia is owned by Disney**_

 **IMPORTANT NOTICE: Earlier when I tried posting this chapter in , it would just upload a copy of the first chapter instead of the REAL second chapter. I'm still new to uploading things on this site, so please bear with me. I apologize immensely for those that have been mislead, and promise to have better grip on things on this site in the future.**

 **VERY IMPORTANT: Due to some good reasoning and explanations from the reviews I've got, I decided to change the name of a character in this chapter, due to the controversial it had ties with. I admit, I thought it wouldn't cause too much trouble at first, but after hearing the reviewer's explanations (and some realization), it turned out that the 'reference' to the character in question was far too close to home and had potential of making this story (and me) look like a stupidly bad person, resulting me in bringing the chapter down (once again) and edit out a few things.**

 **Look, I just want to say this right now, I don't want to cause any kind of political or social conflict, and I'm NOT trying to spread some kind of political agenda or social/political message of any kind.**

 **I'm just a new writer who wants to create a fanfic, and be creative while doing so. Unfortunately, I've went overboard by placing a few things in this chapter that prove to be both controversial and downright irritating to anybody. So, as I said, I took off the chapter and revamped it to not post those negative messages as much as I can.**

 **Also, I need to say that, after you read this chapter, please know that the story of this fanfic will not be anything political or social. I WILL say that some references to some social issues will play some parts in the future chapters, but mostly to help develop the characters in this fic (Nick, Judy, and any other characters I plan to put in), and provide some sort of situation to help keep the ball rolling. The main focus of this story will not be completely about political or social problems; they will have some involvement but nothing extreme.**

 **I want this to come out as a story of adventure, friendship, romance (between Nick and Judy, most notably), drama, and overcoming struggles, and forming strong bonds.**

 **I'm planning this to be light-hearted fic with some strong problems and struggles that encourage a stronger connection between all characters as they face them. However, there will be some dark themes and downturns in the future, but nothing close enough to be considered rated M or Adult-themed, but a bit dark nonetheless.**

 **Not only that, but I'm not trying to make this into an award-winning-story, I just want it to be entertaining story that catches the interests of all viewers.**

 **Anyway, please keep these in mind, and thank you very much for the constructive criticisms for the mistakes that I can be blind too. To prove that I've listened, I've re-edited the chapter to be deemed more appropriate by not being "too strong on the nose" by referencing a man who will not be named.**

 **Again, I apologize for any irritation I've caused.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Time At The Rally**

 _ **Wednesday, 5:15 pm, Sahara Square, Gila Plaza**_

Gila Plaza was one of the biggest public spaces located in the Sahara district.

When there's nothing on its grounds, the plaza itself wasn't very special in terms of appearance, having nothing but tiles made of sandstone with a few areas filled with large patches of grass. However, its large amount of empty space and flat land has made this specific location a popular choice for local communal activities to take place. Circuses, carnivals, seasonal amusement parks, and other various types of public entertainment establishments were known to work hard to just negotiate proper terms with City Hall to reserve a schedule to temporarily set up shop in the plaza. Many communal planners and entertainment corporations spent lots of time and money into hosting their events on the public space, attracting the attention of hundreds of tourists. The special attractions usually ran in both day and nighttime hours, as this would bring in many potential customers that were diurnal and nocturnal in nature. Plus, since Sahara Square was dominated by animal species that had always been active in the night, keeping the events efficiently running right after, and during, nightfall was always an important aspect to implement.

What makes this specific plaza very popular for hosting such festive celebrations, was because of its flat landscape. Construction crews and volunteers have lauded on how easy it was to set up tents, stalls and other platforms right on top of sandstone layered ground. Due to this advantage, the temporary structures needed for the events to properly operate, were already in working order before the opening deadline.

With the immense amount of activities and entertainment fairs that commonly happen in Gila Plaza, mixed with many other communal events booked on standby, the place was nicknamed the 'Sand Party Circle'.

The plaza was tightly 'circled' by a wall of thick buildings that had notable designs that were native to the people of Sahara Square, and some of the typical rectangular architecture. While it was common for many plazas to possess walls of buildings covering the sides and edges of the surrounding area, the structures in Gila were placed a lot closer and tighter together. This made the entire location feel much more enclosed and 'caged-in' than any other urban park, even causing a slight tinge of claustrophobia for some newcomers. Fortunately, these negative sensations don't tend to last long, and would dissipate through time spent in the plaza. Also, there were many entrances and exits that connect Gila Plaza with the rest of Sahara Square, granting plenty of easy ways to get in and out of the area for the hundreds of visitors that come in annually for the festivities.

The very same buildings surrounding Gila's flat and spacious center were dominantly restaurants and small clothing shops. Most of the eateries were diners, bakeries, and cafes located at ground level of the structures they were placed in. Because they resided in one of the busiest locations in all of Sahara Square, the owners of these establishments had to adjust to a working lifestyle of being open nearly twenty-four hours a day, especially during special events.

As of today, a 'special' rally was being active right on Gila Plaza's grounds.

Crowds upon crowds of animals were all standing on the very epicenter of the park's space, cheering and shouting random obscenities over the top of their longs towards an empty podium. In hindsight, one would quickly realize that everyone in the aggressively bawdy gathering were entirely made of multiple prey species. The number of people attending this assembly literally took up a quarter of the plaza, but all of the attendees were so tightly packed together, many found it difficult to even lift their arms. However, they didn't seem to have too much problems with this, and resulted to shout or yell statements that any sane person would find disgustingly inappropriate.

"A GOOD PREDATOR IS A CAGED PREDATOR! LOCK THEM ALL INTO CAGES!"

"MAKE ZOOTOPIA GREAT AGAIN! MAKE ZOOTOPIA GREAT AGAIN!"

"SHOCK COLLAR THE PREDS! SHOCK COLLAR THE PREDS!"

"PREDATORS ARE ENEMY NUMBER 1! PREDATORS ARE ENEMY NUMBER 1!"

"VOTE FOR CHRISTAIN PRESTON! HE IS THE FUTURE! VOTE FOR CHRISTAIN PRESTON! HE IS THE FUTURE!"

"VOTE FOR PRESTON! VOTE FOR PRESTON!"

The airways was filled with cheering like this, a few were relatively positive, and everything else was aggressively negative in many ways. Nonetheless, the densely crowded rally attenders continued to shout their speciesist statements in boastful pride.

They were all standing (and shouting) in front of a large platform that was built directly on the location's very center. Its construction was big and bulky, definitely designed to hold the wait of multiple animals that shared the size and weight of elephants. Red-colored banners hung on the platform's sides, reaching dozen meters in height from top to bottom, swaying gently by the Saharan wind, and was visible from a faraway distance. Right in the middle of the stage was a podium made entirely of steel, and had the letters 'C.P.' stamped on the very front of it.

While Gila Plaza was popular for hosting communal activities and party-like festivities, it was also known to be used as a political hub for spreading various political influences and messages. Anyone in the field of politics have taken advantage of Gila to meet up with supporters, give speeches, and increase the strength of the ideals they hope to implement. Many everyday Zootopia citizens don't really find it surprising that people in politics would use the plaza as a strategic point to increase their political leverage. Plenty actually like the notion as the people who can't really travel out of Sahara Square could have the opportunity to see their favorite political figure outside of the of a TV screen, while the rest wouldn't really care and continue with their lives.

However, while a many of the past rallies were known to be relatively peaceful with little to no signs of over-aggression, this one began to worry a lot of people in the city. Thankfully, anyone who actively opposes this kind of crowd (and the person that they're rooting for) decided to leave them be and not get involved, possibly avoiding violent clashes that would end up with multiple people getting injured.

Nick and Judy were right in front of the bulky stage's base, currently feeling the brunt of the nearly radical crowds' shouts, yells and offensive connotations. The two were standing side-by-side with each other, while also being a few feet apart as they wanted to maintain a professional partnership to the public eye as much as possible. Thankfully, this was pretty easy for them to do. Despite everything that was happening, they still managed to keep a stern and controlled stance to the large of people before them.

"Hey, Nick!" Judy said in a loud enough voice for her partner to hear through all of the yelling cheers.

Nick reacted by calmly turning his head towards the female rabbit, his emerald eyes covered by his reflective sunglasses.

"Do you want to stand at a different post?" She asked as she watched her boyfriend's tired frown look slightly more concerning over the rabbit's well-being. "Probably somewhere that's not very close to the crowd?"

"Is all the noise getting to your ears?"

"A little bit, but I can handle it," Judy reassured her partner. In actuality, she was worried that the racist cheers and angry glances were starting to affect her partner. While she was aware that the fox was very good at handling people with aggressively prejudice views, since he had to bare through it as a child, she couldn't help but become concerned for Nick's well-being. Not even she could really stomach on everything that was happening in front of her.

"I told you to bring your ear plugs with you," Nick said neutrally, but there were slight hints of his sly demeanor. To Judy, this was more welcoming to her than him showing concern.

"Its fine, Nick, I can handle the noise."

"You sure? I can radio in McHorn to pick them up for you."

"I'm _good_ , Nick! There's no need for calling in any of the guys," Judy protested, but remained continued to maintain a controlled composure without trouble. "Besides, it's almost time for them to take over our shift anyway."

"Alright, Fluff. Just remember, you were the one who brought it up."

"I know."

As much as she loved working a life-long career of being a police officer, she hated having to keep a calm and neutral appearance towards speciesist gatherings like this. If this was any regular day, she would've gladly arrested these people for immense public misdemeanor charges, or give them a fine by the very _least_. However, there were times that she (and by extension, Nick) had to discern between acts that could be labeled as overly-aggressive offences to the law and people exercising freedom of speech. The rabbit police officer got into some distasteful situations that were related to the latter, encountering small groups of prey animals spreading anti-predator messages and pamphlets on the public streets, but all she could do was leave them with a warning as they weren't doing anything criminal enough to warrant a ticket.

There have been a few times that she got into few fits of verbal outbursts and arguments against those kinds of people, but it wasn't anything too severe as she continued to handle those situations with the professionalism that would be expected from a ZPD officer like her. However, she recalled one terrible encounter with a very speciesist warthog that nearly blown out into a violent fight between her and that said individual. Fortunately, her partner was there to physically restrain her back from madly lashing on to the suid. What really made Judy go berserk that day was how much the boar insulted her for 'being a traitor of her race and absolute disgrace by partnering up with a fox', along with a couple other blatantly offensive slurs she took to heart. In the end, the warthog was arrested by other nearby officers as he shouted murderous threats towards Hopps and Wilde, and even made a dumb promise to kill off the entire ZPD. Whether he would actually follow on those threats was unknown, but even many others thought of it as a stupid decision to make, since it gave the police more than enough reasons to lock him up behind bars. Later on, it turned out that the warthog was involved with an armed burglary that happened a few weeks back, prompting more legal reasons for his arrest and provided information that concluded the investigation related to case.

Unfortunately, Judy was still in trouble with her angry outburst towards the hog, and was given a long lecture by Chief Bogo for losing composure in such state. Thankfully for her, she was let off with a stern warning because the arrest of the warthog (and conclusion of that one particular burglary) helped make him have less cases to deal with, but was still threatened with a suspension if it ever happened again.

"Hey, Carrots! How are you holding up?" Nick asked after what felt like to be five minutes of silence between the two. "You look more troubled than usual, and that's starting to worry me, what's on your mind?"

"I'm doing _fine_ , Nick! Keep your eyes on the rally."

"You sure you don't want to call it in? Our time is almost up anyway."

"I told you, Nick, no! Let the guys enjoy what's left of their break."

"Alright, Carrots, whatever you say," the vulpine replied in compliance, finally getting the message that Judy wanted to finish every minute of their current shift.

Hours ago, right after they dropped off their police cruiser to the Precinct's mechanics, they were tasked by Chief Bogo to keep an eye on the Grump rally and act as additional security. They wouldn't be doing this alone, Officers McHorn, Wolford and Grizzoli would be alternating shifts with them, and act as backup just in case things go awry.

The ZPD wanted to make a clear visual message to the anti-predator advocates that predators formed a good bulk of the police department's members, as well as maintained a healthy working relationship with their prey brethren. When Bogo told them that he even requested City Hall to allow this, they were surprised that he received many green lights and support, even requests from the politicians to have this 'tactic' done to other political rallies run by speciesist ideals. He admitted that he never expected that kind of response to happen, but was glad that it did, granting the ZPD a little more power on monitoring over certain movements and gatherings that could be radical in nature. Of course, they all have to be careful in those kinds of assignments and ensure that proper cautionary measures would be placed, since there would be situations that someone in those prejudice rallies could end up radically attacking an officer (or a random bystander) for just being a predator. It might sound farfetched, but offenses like that have become a little too common for the police's liking, especially with the current political movement taking place.

Fortunately for everybody, the wave of political influence from one Christian Preston may seem large as of right now, but it wasn't as big as most people thought it would be. Only twelve percent of Zootopians actively support Preston's anti-predator ideals, while everybody else wants nothing else to do with the individual, and others were attempting to organize public demonstrations against him. The way his supporters behave play a big factor on why his influence wasn't growing as fast his advocators wanted it to be, mainly because the people on his side were known to commit acts of unnecessary violence.

Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps have stood on the same location for about two whole hours in total, having to bear with the constant screaming and shouting cheers full of prideful xenophobia. They haven't encountered any trouble thus far, which they were both glad about, probably because they were one of the best police officers in the force. However, some of the rally attenders weren't afraid to openly sneer and scowl at the rabbit-fox pair, really wanting to express their anger towards them in whatever manner possible. Regardless, the two officers would just ignore the insults in their own ways. Plus, having a successful reputation in the ZPD, mixed with their contribution in solving the Night Howler case, gave some pretty good reasons for the dense crowds to not mess with them.

Nick, being the sly and prideful fox he usually was, tends to react with the smug smile that everybody will see him do in a day-to-day basis. He even lifted his sunglasses up and did a few playful winks to some of the animals in the rally, particularly the women who blurted out the most offensive insults, which drove them to be _very_ angry. There were a few times he'd actually reply to the rally members' verbal offenses by offering his own witty comebacks or one-liners, which irritated the insulters enough to be quiet. Other than that, he'd continued to outright ignore them, and continue looking over the area with a smile on his face.

Judy on the other hand, was not nearly as good as handling these kinds of environments like her partner. However, she did the best thing she could do whenever someone from the masses give off an insult of any kind, and that was to ignore it or act like it meant absolutely nothing to her. But there were a couple instances that she would try to actively defend her position in being partnered with a fox, resulting in more heated arguments against the crowd, which resulted in Nick having to hold her back from causing a fight. She even tried to blatantly insult them for being prejudice views, resulting in Nick having to calm everyone own and pry the bunny away before things get violent, and even blew her tongue out to some of the animals shunning them.

Fortunately, these instances were few, and Judy continued to be calm and reserved for the rest of their shift in front of the bulky stage. Also, the other officers weren't around to witness the female rabbit officer doing such actions, same goes for the collection of private security guards overlooking the sides of the gathering, and they immensely doubt that anyone from within the rally would find it worth it to post a complaint to the ZPD for Judy's early behavior. All in all, everything should be kept quiet about it, and Officer Hopps wouldn't have to worry about going through another lecture from Chief Bogo.

Also, due to being warned about the rallier's aggressive nature beforehand, they were advised to wear their Kevlar vests, granting them additional protection from any potential dangers that could happen from the crowd. Not only that, but their arms and legs were covered in black-colored protective pads. The padding wasn't as thick as their Kevlar chest piece, but the material was light and comfortable enough for the officers' movements to remain versatile. However, the only complaint the two had about the pads, was that the things absorbed plenty of unwanted heat, which was even more irritating in Sahara Square. Thankfully, they'll be allowed to unstrap them during their upcoming breaktime hours.

" _Radio check, one-two-three. Hopps and Wilde, do you read?"_ Said an all too familiar voice coming from the radios strapped to the right side of their chests.

"This is Hopps to Grizzoli, we read you. What's up?" Judy responded quickly as she unattached the radio from her strap and held it in front of her.

" _Is Wilde still with you?"_

Nick unstrapped his radio and held it beside his snout. "10-4, my man. Standing beside our lovely rabbit officer of the year, and embracing the ever so friendly speciesist shouts and scowls from the ralliers. Where else would I be?"

" _Probably skulking around and ticking off everyone in the rally to no end."_

"Ouch, Grizzoli, you _wound_ me," Nick replied with overly-dramatized offense. "I may indeed be a handsome and sly fox, but there's no way I'll go so low as to constantly tick every single Preston supporter I pass by."

" _So you_ have _irritated some people?"_

"A few women in the rally that said one of the most _colorful_ comments to me," the fox answered smugly, his sly smile looking more excited as he went on. "I answered back with a gorgeous smile and a nice wink to complement their 'positive' attitudes. Judging by their narrow-eyed frowns, I think they loved it."

" _One of these days, you'll end up on a hospital bed because of that, Wilde."_

"That actually sounds pretty nice, especially when I don't have to worry about listening to you over the radio."

"Nick!" Judy hissed.

" _Now what's that supposed to mean?"_ Grizzoli asked defensively over the communication channel.

"Easy, man. I never meant that, you know me," Nick replied calmly, and somewhat apologetically, to his hand-held radio. "We still cool?"

" _Uh-huh."_

"You sound very skeptical, Grizzoli."

" _We're still good, Wilde, don't worry about it."_

"You sure~?" He asked toyfully.

" _Yes!"_

"Still blood-brothers from different den mothers?"

"Sweet cheese 'n crackers, Nick!" Judy said to herself in annoyance as she a palm to her forehead.

" _You know that saying only applies between wolves."_

"Could I be an exception?"

Grizzoli made a soft laugh over the radio. _"Maybe one day._ Maybe."

"This is Hopps to Grizzoli," Judy said quickly, bringing herself back into the conversation. "Not wanting to intrude on your guys' brotherly conversation, but is there anything important you want to tell us?"

" _Ah, right,"_ Grizzoli replied with slight hints of nervousness over Judy's authoritative tone, before becoming more serious. _"I need to let you two know that it's time for us to change shifts and for you to get a break."_

"Roger that. Do you want us to meet you anywhere?"

" _Yeah, me and the guys are standing in front of Sand Tunneller's Diner. It's literally behind the rally, big yellow sign, you can't miss it."_

"I know the place, and he's not wrong about the directions," Nick confirmed to the lagomorph.

"Alright, Grizzoli, see you guys there in a few minutes," Judy said to her radio's transceiver before reattaching it back on her vest's strap. She looked over to her partner, watching him do the same. "Please think a little bit more on what you say, _before_ you say it."

Nick just stood and listen as he casually took off his sunglasses and secured them in a case attached to his vest.

"I know you love to poke fun a lot with people, but there are times your jokes could end up hurting others instead of just making them laugh."

"C'mon, Jude, this is me we're talking about," Nick said in a reassuring demeanor. "I've been talking myself out of trouble ever since I started hustling, and that's quite a long while, mind you. I'm smart enough to know what I should and shouldn't say to people."

"I know, Nick, but there are some times that I caught you saying some pretty mean things to people who don't deserve it."

Felling the awkward tenseness of the truth hitting him, the vulpine couldn't help but awkwardly rub the back of his neck with his right arm. Looking at Judy with eyes having noticeable traits of guilt. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, it can be," the bunny cop confirmed with a small amount of sincerity, wanting to be careful that the speciesist ralliers before them doesn't catch onto any hints of them being more than just friends. "So, please be a _little_ more mindful on what you say to others, okay?"

"Alright, Fluff," the fox answered as he stood more positively, a casual smile back on his face. "I'll be more careful on the words that come out my mouth, _especially_ towards our buddies."

"Good to know!" She beamed happily.

"But as for anyone as speciesist as the crowd on the other hand. . ." he stick his thumb towards the densely crowded ralliers who were continuing to shout anti-predator cheers. "Don't expect me to go up to them and say 'you're all great people full of sunshine' anytime soon."

"You can say whatever you want to them, as long as the comebacks aren't bad enough to get you reported to Bogo's office in the end of the day."

"You got it, Carrots."

"Now, let's get out of here and meet up with the rest of the guys," Judy stated as she began walk towards the side, taking the lead for the duo, but was interrupted when Nick rushed to her front and walked at her pace.

"I know exactly where the place is, so it would be faster if I take the lead on this one."

Holding in a friendly laugh, the rabbit just smiled as she looked up to her partner and continued waling close to him. "Whatever you say, partner."

After that being said, the two police officers finally left their posts and casually traversed away from the rally. They walked side by side, Nick taking the league while Judy slightly lagged behind, but the pair was still very close to one another. Like much earlier, it was all quiet between them, the only sounds filling the air were the very same prejudice chanting screams from the densely packed crowds of Grump supporters piling in front of the stage.

They were walking on a designated path that led around the occupied grounds, a temporary walkway set up for security guards and selected VIPs to use without having to push their way through the rally attenders. The passageway was currently clear of crowding, leaving the rabbit-fox duo to casually walk on it without worry. They would occasionally pass by a security guard, all of them hippos that were dressed in black suits, and had black sunglasses covering their eyes.

While Nick and Judy continued their stroll, the two would notice that some of the ralliers would give them a glare in disgust, or even boo them outright in anger. It was obvious that the people were showing an increased amount of hatred towards them, many of the individuals that Judy nearly picked fights with shouted threats like 'I'm going to get you fired', and many other unsavory sentences, as soon as they caught sight of her. However, whatever the anti-predator animals yelled at them fell on deaths ears, since the two police officers just ignored it all with a smile and resumed walking down the path without a sign of hesitation.

Before long, the rabbit-fox pair were far away from the aggressive crowds, getting closer to a small building that was to be their destination. The structure was as big as a small house and wasn't attached with the rest of the establishments forming the wall around the plaza. Like some of the other buildings that make up the minority in Sahara Square, its architecture didn't appear very native with the district, possessing the standard blocky construction. That never meant it was a bad place though, it certainly gave off the air of a friendly place that would see good business, and have good food. On the roof, there was the big yellow sign that said 'Sand Tunneller's Diner' in clear writing.

Close to the diner's entrance were the three other police officers' waiting for them, Wolford, Grizzoli and McHorn. The large rhino was looking at something on his phone, while the two wolves were chatting amongst themselves. They were all equipped with the same kind of padding as Hopps and Wilde, the black-colored material strapped onto their arms and legs, leaving their chests protected by the Kevlar vests.

The two wolves were the first to notice, their strong sense of hearing and smell were able to detect Nick and Judy as they got closer to them.

"About time you guys got here!" Grizzoli shouted impatiently as he decided to walk towards Hopps and Wilde, the other two officers following behind him. "We were getting worried that you got eaten alive in the rally or something."

"Aw, how sweet of you to put so much care into us," Nick joked smugly.

"Like as if we have a choice," Wolford stated in friendly humor. "Otherwise, we'll have to risk a tongue lashing from Bogo, and we all know how bad that can be."

"Amen to that, _no one_ wants to get sent of the Chief's office for an hour long mouthful."

"Anyway. . ." Judy interrupted, her serious side more present. "How long are you three going stay out on the plaza again?"

"Same as you guys, two hours," Grizzoli answered casually. "Meaning that you guys can just sit back, relax, and remain on standby."

"I like the sound of that," Nick pitched in as he crossed his arms, his smug grin looking more anticipated for two hours of breaktime.

"Don't let it get to your head, Wilde," McHorn warned. "You two are still going to be called in if things get crazy."

"Don't worry, McHorn, we'll be ready to spring back into action whenever you need us," Judy piqued with eager enthusiasm.

"What she said," Nick agreed under sly pompous. "We'll be there to get your little butts out of trouble if things go south, big guy."

McHorn just rolled his eyes in response and blew some air out of his nostrils.

"So, how bad is the crowd?" Grizzoli asked.

"Not too bad, as long as you can filter out all of the anti-predator screams," Judy explained in her usual positive attitude.

"The usual stuff you would expect in a Preston rally," Nick added.

"Nothing worrying enough for us to constantly reach for our tranq guns?"

"Now that's only when they _really_ like you," Nick answered with sly sarcasm.

Judy gave him another jab to his stomach from her elbow, then looked at him with an irritated glare to further enhance her warning.

"What?!" The fox wheezed a bit as he rubbed the spot his partner hit him.

The lagomorph ignored him and returned her attention to the wolf in front of them. "Just keep your positions in front of the stage, behave, and don't give them a reason to riot. All of you guys shouldn't have to worry about anything as long as you ignore the things they shout at you."

"Will do," Grizzoli nodded.

"Anything else you three want to ask?"

"Yeah, I have a question," said McHorn as he slowly walked right beside the wolf, and closer to the rabbit, his size towering everyone in the group. "I've been hearing some angry chatter from some of the ralliers coming in and out that you've been shouting some insults to them, getting into a few heated arguments, and almost started a few fights. Is that all true?"

Judy wasn't showing it, but she was starting to panic internally. While she knew that there was a chance of people outside of the rally finding out of the aggressive actions she's done to Preston's supporters, she just hoped that no one would bring it up. Of course, there was always Chief Bogo usually being the first one discussing this out in a lecture, but the water buffalo would never tell it to anyone else, simply because conversations sparking from information like this could lower the Precinct's cohesion and efficiency, something that he would not stand. Regardless, this didn't stop the rabbit's worries from bottling up inside of her, causing a mix of stress and fears to cloud her mind. Despite all of the inner turmoil beginning to happen, she still managed to prevent from showing, but it was slowly becoming harder.

"C'mon, man," Nick started. "Those are words coming from people who want to build concrete walls around predators' houses, they'll chat about anything to keep the hate going."

"I wasn't asking you, Wilde, and I know you've been pissing off some of the women in the rally."

"Only the most offensive of the bunch, and that was only four girls in total."

"And you just winked at them?"

"With a handsome smile, my man, always winked with a smile."

"There'll be a day you may end up with a complaint for sexual harassment."

"It's only considered sexual harassment if I keep doing it on the same person or group of people. I'm _not_ going for any second strikes on those women, anytime soon."

"You better not, the Chief has enough on his plate as it is." He turned back to looking down at Judy. "You still haven't answered my question, Hopps."

The female lagomorph looked down at the ground for a bit, ears drooping downward behind her scalp, showing her nervousness, but tried what she could to remain confident and professional. Unfortunately, the leaking stress was already giving off hints to the rhino in front of her. "I. . . I did get into a few arguments with some of the people in the rally."

"Only a few?"

"Yes, only a few!" Judy answered rather defensively. However, she quickly reverted back to looking worried, and somewhat guilty, as she wrapped her arms around her torso under a sense of fear. "But they were pretty heated. I'm not gonna lie, but some of the things they said to us kinda got me, caused a lot of insults to come back and forth. . ."

"But you didn't start any fights, right?"

"No. . . but I nearly did," She confirmed somberly. "Nick had to pull me away from the crowds to prevent that from happening."

"You know, Carrots, you should've just kept that to yourself," Nick said with friendly warning and sympathy.

" _Nick_ , you know that I'm not that kind of person," She replied with some serious confidence back into her voice and facial expression. "Besides, Bogo may find out about it anyway, so there's no use in trying to hide it."

"When he does find out about it, he'll just give you. . . what? Barely five to ten minutes of scolding? You didn't start any fights, and you kept yourself collected during the time afterward, right?" Grizzoli asked in a supportive tone.

"Yes, that's right," Judy confirmed.

"You should just get a short earful from the Chief about 'maintaining professional educate'," McHorn stated.

"Speaking like our beloved Bogo himself," Nick quipped, which everyone ignored.

"You shouldn't worry about anything harsher other than that," the rhino continued. "You didn't cause any actual trouble, so he'll just let you off with a warning. . . and not even a strict one."

"Yeah, I think you're right on that," the rabbit replied with a reformed smile, her positive demeanor coming back to her.

"Hey, as long as you didn't start a fight, then you should be fine," Grizzoli piped in with friendly support.

"Thanks, guys," Judy said to the three with a smile of gratitude.

"No problem, Hopps, and we should _really_ get back on duty. I think we spoke a bit too long than we should," the white furred wolf stated somewhat urgently as he glanced at his wristwatch, before looking at the two officers beside him.

"Oh, right! Right! Sorry for taking too much of your time."

"Don't worry about it." Grizzoli walked a few steps before looking back to his partners. "Come on, guys. Let's go."

"Take the time to relax, and see you later," said McHorn as he and Wolford followed the white wolf to the immensely loud rally in the distance.

After a minute of watching the other three police officers farther away from them, Judy let out an exasperated sigh. Whatever's left of the worries and stress built inside of her, completely gone in that moment. Sure, it wasn't as bad as what she felt hours earlier, being spotted and starred by those two teenage goats back on the ice cream café, but it felt close. After all, she _did_ get involved with arguments against crowds of anti-predators, shouted insults at them, and practically lost composure. It didn't help she and Nick were pretty popular among the ZPD, making plenty their accomplishments well-known. Fortunately, they were never caught doing anything that would incriminate them, but that didn't stop some of the paparazzi from trying.

Judy was still worried of the consequences if word of her arguments with the Grump supporters become some kind of hot topic for the news or press. Like what Grizzoli said, she and Nick didn't actually engage them in any fights, meaning that no right-minded Zootopian will take the speciesist prey seriously enough to believe them on anything. Unfortunately, this didn't help the rabbit relieve too much of her worries, especially if the implications could harshly affect her life and career.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who has a habit of something to work out of," Nick said as he wrapped one arm around the sighing rabbit.

"Yeah, yeah, I _know_ ," Judy groaned irritably as she rubbed her forehead.

"Now, now, it's not healthy for a bunny to get this stressed out in just one day."

"Since when did _you_ know anything about rabbit health?"

"As soon as I started getting into dating one," he mused, lightly tugging her closer to him. "C'mon, Carrots, time to smile, relax, and enjoy two whole hours of breaktime."

With a smile creeping back on to the bunny's face, and feelings of positivity returning to her mind, she grabbed the fox's arm and pushed it away from her. "Remember, none of that at work, _especially_ close to a crowd."

"It's not a hug, Carrots."

"But you want it to get there."

"With us far away from that madness," he pointed his thumb to the rally, "Maybe I do."

"How sweet of you," she said somewhat flirtatiously, "but all of that stays at home."

"Says the one who started that little kissy time in the parking lot," he replied in the same tone, but a little more quietly, to prevent any nearby animals from hearing everything they're actually saying.

"That was one of the few exceptions."

"I hope we get to have more of those 'exceptions' in the future."

"But that will mean we won't do any of it at home, and I know you don't want that."

"Indeed, I don't. You know exactly where to wound me."

"Someone has too," she mused as she walked in front of him. "Remember our little rule: the romance stays at home and _never_ at work."

"Of course, Carrots," his charm still unchanged the whole time. "Can we please take the time we have to actually relax and have a bit of fun?"

"Oh, sure!" She piqued in surprise and excitement, resulting the rabbit's ears to rise firmly. But she looked puzzled as she had no idea what to do for the next two hours. "Uhh. . . what would you like to do?"

"For starters, we could eat a shawarma in the diner," the fox gladly suggested, pointing at the restaurant's entrance. "I know the guy who owns the place and he's pretty good cook."

"What's a shawarma?"

"Think of it as a Middle Eastern burrito," Nick answered as he led the rabbit officer to the diner's glass doors.

"That sounds interesting, I never tried Middle Eastern food before."

"Then you're going to try some now," he replied as he opened the door wide open and stood to the side. "After you."

"Always the gentleman," Judy commented as she walked in, her partner following right behind her.

The interior of the building had everything that was expected to for a diner. Booths right next to uncovered windows, tables with clean surfaces, and a long countertop that separated the eating area from the kitchen at the other side of the wall, with retractable stools placed underneath it. The walls were painted with patterns that gave it a strong feel of life for residents native to Sahara Square, or any region similar to it. There were some trinkets held on frames looked somewhat mystical. It wasn't a very big place by all means, but it still had the accommodations to settle both small and large species of animals. At the moment, there was nobody eating inside of the diner, leaving all of the tables empty and unoccupied.

"Hey, Omar! Are you there or did you forget to put up the close sign again?" Nick shouted to the direction of the kitchen, which loud clattering of utensils being smashed together were heard.

"Nick, is that you?" Questioned a voice from the cooking area, which was followed by the sound of pans clattering against each other.

A moment later, someone came out through the door frame connecting the kitchen and dining area together. The individual was a dromedary camel, he appeared to be in his early fifties, had a noticeable potbelly, and wore light T-shirt and desert shorts that were common in Sahara Square. Like any person of his species, the desert-native mammal was easily taller than both Nick and Judy combined, but that never meant anything bad. He also had a white apron worn over his shirt, identifying himself as one of the cooks in the diner, which had mixed scents of cooked vegetables, fish, and other food dishes.

"Nick! It is you!" The camel nearly shouted in joy as he spotted the red fox, an excited smile present on his face as he walked towards the duo in open arms.

"Omar, my man, it's been a while!" Nick greeted with tones of happiness in turn.

"A _long_ while," Omar replied as he bent down and grabbed the red fox into a mighty bear-hug, which was obviously discomforting for the latter.

Judy only watched and tried to stifle a giggle.

"I was starting to think you've forgotten about me," Omar said as he continued to squeeze the fox in his grasp.

"Forget you? Nah, that will never happen," Nick gasped in struggled breaths.

The camel finally untightened his hold on the vulpine and released him back on the ground, taking the time to just wait on him to regain control of his breathing as he watched it all with a bright smile. Nothing else was said or nearly a minute, while Judy helped the fox reassert himself and pat down any noticeable wrinkles on his uniform.

"Wow. . . look at you now, a full-time cop," Omar said in a tone of awe reminiscent to a proud father.

"Not just any full-time cop, but the ZPD's first _fox_ cop," the vulpine wheezed with pride.

The camel reacted with a hardy laugh that was loud enough to echo throughout the diner. "And don't forget saving the city from Bellweather's Night Howlers. I read the papers."

"I wasn't alone, Omar," Nick pointed out as he happily turned his head to the rabbit next to him. "I was helping a really good friend in that case."

"Oh, how dumb I am!" He thought out loudly in irritation, then bent down on his knees and brought out an open hand towards the lagomorph. "Sorry it felt like I was completely ignoring you, I know you were here the whole time, I was just caught in the moment with Nick."

"No, no! It's okay! I never felt any trouble with that at all," Judy urged the desert mammal that she was never offended in any way, and shook his offered hand in appreciation. "Judy Hopps, Nick's partner in the ZPD."

"You two are partners now?" The elder questioned in awestruck realization, eyes widen in astonishment as he slowly darted back between the fox and rabbit.

"That's right," Nick answered in a sense of smug pride. "Ever since I graduated from the academy, everyone in the force thought we'd work a lot better together."

To the surprise of the two police officers, the camel reacted with a proud laugh; it was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire diner. However, they didn't take this into offense as they knew it was never meant to be portrayed in such a way, they took it rather welcoming. Especially for Nick, finding Omar's very joyful and positive attitude approachably nostalgic, something he certainly _loved_ about the older man.

"I can still remember seeing you and Finnick going around the city, selling cheap hardware, asking for favors, persuading for handouts. . ."

"Yeah, how times have changed."

"Anyway, enough of the memories, I have a feeling you're here for something? Probably for a quick pick up?"

"Actually, we're on break," Judy chided in cheerfully. "We won't be needed for another two hours, so we just want to relax in here for a little while."

"Why, by all means, stay as long as you like! This place could really use the company!" Omar replied in lots of joyful enthusiasm.

"Thank you for the generous hospitality, Omar," the rabbit said graciously.

"Ah, not a problem. Now follow me, I'll guide you to a table."

Nick and Judy followed the camel throughout the confines of the diner, passing by many of the empty booths, their shone clearly under the dim light from the lamps hung overhead, silver ware were elegantly wrapped in thick napkins, and menu booklets placed on each side of the tables. They all stopped walking once they got to a booth close to the very back of the restaurant. There was nothing special to this one table in particular, but it was near to the open doorway that led into the kitchen.

"Here you are! I chose this one because it's closer to the kitchen, but if you two want a different table, I don't mind."

"I don't have any problems with it," Judy replied, then turned to her friend. "Nick?"

"I'm good with this," the fox answered as he took a seat on one side of the table, and watched the rabbit scoot on to the opposite side.

"Good!" Omar said gladly with a satisfied clap. "Now, I'll give you two some time to look over the menu, so just call me over to when you've picked the things you want."

"We already thought out on what we want to get, Omar," Nick stated before the camel decided to leave.

"Oh, is that so? Alright, then! What is it you both would like?" the desert mammal asked happily as he brought out a small notebook and pen from his back pocket.

"Two falafel shawarmas, my man, one each for me and her."

"Drinks?"

"A cup of coffee for me."

"And one cream carrot soda for me, please," answered Judy as she watched Omar write down all of their orders.

"Okay, two falafel shawarmas, one coffee, one cream carrot soda. . ." Omar repeated their orders out loud as he finished writing them down on his notebook. "Anything else?"

"Uh, quick question!" The rabbit said somewhat urgently, grabbing the camel's attention. "Is there any meat in falafel?"

"No, no meat. Falafel is made from ground chickpeas formed into patties and deep fried," answered the dessert camel in noticeable pride. "Is this your first time trying Middle Eastern food, Miss Hopps?"

"Yes it is. So please pardon me for. . ."

"HA! Think nothing of it!" He shouted joyously, which made the lagomorph jump up on her seat in surprise from the sudden change in volume. "So many have asked the exact same question, and you won't be the last. Now, will that be all?"

"Just the shawarmas will do for us, my man. Thanks," Nick answered while the rabbit was in the midst of recovering from the camel's loud shout.

"Okay, just give me a few minutes and your food should be ready," Omar instructed after closing his small notebook and placing it back in his back pocket. Afterwards, he departed by walking into the kitchen to prepare his customers' food.

After watching the desert mammal leave them alone, Nick brought his smug-like gaze back on Judy, who was back to her usual self and lightly tapping on the table's surface with her fingers. "Liking Omar so far?"

"He's a great guy! A bit on the loud side, though," the rabbit officer answered as she patted her right ear.

"Give it some time and you'll get used to it. And seeing him like that is usually a good thing; that means he likes you."

"With that kind of positive attitude, I can see that."

The two police officers relaxed on their seats as they waited for their meals, silence shrouded around them as they didn't have anything else to talk about and wanted to rest for the time-being. They would occasionally bring up their phones, checking for any missed calls or unread messages, only to find out that were none, so far.

Nick, being the sly fox he's been known for, would blow a slight whistle to catch the rabbit's attention and proceeded to give a few playful winks right after. He'd watched Judy react with some suppressed giggling, a meek smile that would be followed by a disapproving shake of the head. The vulpine could only shrug to this, but his trademark grin remaining unbroken, and pressed his body further on his seat's backrest.

"Food is ready!" Said the roaring voice of one cheerful camel walking out of the kitchen doorway.

He had two large flat trays on each of his hands, both of them having plates resting upon them with professional steadiness. On the dishes were two cylinder-like objects wrapped in tin foil sheets, tightly covering every inch of the foodstuff stored inside. Despite it all being sealed by the foil wrap, the two police officers could already smell the appetizing aroma of cooked vegetables, bread, and fried chickpeas leaking out of it. Besides the plates were cups, different for each tray, one was completely made of glass and contained bubbling orange liquid, while the other was a big ceramic mug filled with steaming hot coffee.

"One falafel shawarma with cream carrot soda," Omar stated as he carefully set the first tray down on the table and slid it in front of Judy. "And the other shawarma with a cup of coffee." He placed the second tray towards Nick's side of the table, then clasp his hands under an eager smile, once again. "Enjoy."

"This definitely smells _really_ good," Judy exclaimed eagerly, her appetite growing while she removed the foil rap, uncovering the bulky roll underneath, and releasing more of its delicious aroma.

"It takes more than just smelling it, Fluff, go and take a bite out of that sucker," Nick said as he finished unwrapping his shawarma, and amusingly watched the rabbit still uncover hers. Thankfully, she was almost done.

After finally peeling off the last of the tin foil, Judy grab ahold of the bulky roll with both of her palms, brought it up to her head and took a big bite from the very top. With a bit of time chewing the bitten piece into smaller chunks in her mouth, she instantly enjoyed the tastes, it was something very new, yet familiar to her, and she loved it. After finally swallowing the contents down to her stomach, the rabbit looked at the other two animals with a big gracious smile on her face.

"I really should record that," Nick joked smugly, which his partner ignored. "You liking it, so far?"

"I'm liking it a lot. It's delicious," Judy said in a tone of rising anticipation before continuing to eat the rest of her food.

Omar gave another hardy laugh as he witnessed the display. "I'm starting to _love_ this girl!"

"She's loving your food, that's for sure," Nick commented as he held his shawarma in his hands, getting ready to begin eating it.

Omar was about to make a reply, but was interrupted by the muffled screams and cheers coming from the plaza.

Hearing the upraise in commotion caught Judy's attention, causing her to stop eating her meal and firmly place back on the plate as she looked over to the large windows at the entrance of the diner with wide and curious eyes.

Sitting on the opposite direction, Nick had to turn and adjust himself to look through the same glass furniture that was located far away behind him. With his legs lying on the booth's cushioned seat, and left arm resting on the top of the backrest, he eyed the energetic crowd with an expression that looked relax, bored-like, and had hints of being slightly annoyed.

From what they were able to see, the immensely crowded rally became a lot more chaotic than usual. The hyped cheers and shouts coming from the prey-dominant ralliers have become much louder and crazed than before, possibly loud enough to be heard all over Sahara Square. Many of them were so caught in the moment; some of them were actually jumping in ecstatic joy, which caused several collisions and more than a couple of the spectators falling to the floor. Thankfully, the security guards stationed around the vicinity started to try and stop any of the Grump supporters to further inflict harm on each other.

Off in the very front of the stage, Officers Grizzoli, Wolford and McHorn could be seen shouting out orders to the most 'active' of attendee's to stop under a tone of discipline and control. It wasn't easy, as they had to warn the same groups of individuals multiple times in order for them to finally submit to their demands. Things weren't any less difficult that two of the same police officers out in the rally were predators, making the prejudice masses easily misinterpret their warnings as direct 'threats', and not wanting to cooperate with them in the first place because of their species. Thankfully for McHorn's presence, and the fact that they were all police officers, the rowdy spectators had to begrudgingly follow their orders.

Standing on the middle of the stage for all to see was a rather tall looking deer. He was a buck from the elk species, possessing a bit of a strong and bulky stature that was common among those from his kind, and wore an elaborate business suite that was obviously very expensive. The man just stood on his spot with a sense of self-righteous dignity as he waved to everyone cheering for his presence on the podium. Judging from all of the attention he was receiving from the ralliers, it was clear that he possessed some kind of influential power over them in some way.

Nick and Judy didn't have the slightest clue on who the elk was, but had the feeling that they should've known _something_ about him, since they, and the ZPD by extension, have been keeping tabs on Grump's political 'movement.' Nonetheless, no matter how hard they tried to figure out anything about the deer, like matching him with any other high profile supporters of Ronald Grump, but couldn't come up with anything in relation to this specific deer. This annoyed and infuriated the duo, especially with all of the accomplishments they've done for the ZPD, so they decided to let it off for now and look up any records stashed inside the Precinct's archives to find the information on the individual later.

"Ugh, what a _disgrace_ ," the camel said bitterly as he watched the display through the see through glass. "Looks like I have to close the blinds before it really starts to sour our moods."

"Hey, it's okay. There's no need for that," Nick reassured the desert mammal, stopping him from even making his first step to the windows.

"Are you sure about that, my boy?" Omar asked under a lot of confusion. "Do you really want to stand seeing _that_ nonsense for the rest of your brake?"

"Buddy, we've been stationed around other rallies like this in the past, so we're used to it and don't hold much care for what those yahoos think. Seeing them like this can be pretty entertaining, to be honest."

"The 'entertainment' can become a violent problem if they kept building up their stupidity and anger."

"And that's what we're here for!" Judy said proudly in cheerful-like manner. "Be there to keep every person in Zootopia safe from people with bad intentions. If any of those ralliers really do get violent, then we have the right to arrest them."

"See?" The fox added as he made a smooth hand gesture directing to his partner.

Omar replied to this with friendly laugh, one that wasn't loud and boisterous as what he usually did, but softer in pitch and less loud. "Your high spirits is something to behold, Miss Hopps!"

Judy tried to suppress a blush from the complement.

"But are you really sure you can bare the sight of this while you eat?" Omar continued as he harshly pointed to the rally with one hand. "As a naturally born herbivore, even I'm disgusted on what's happening over there!"

"And as a rabbit, you're not the only one. But like Nick said, we've dealt with those kinds of people before, with some encounters a lot worse than others, so it'll take more than them to ruin our day."

"And you'll just block our view of them by dropping the curtains, but it won't cancel out the screams coming from those yahoos, and they're getting a lot louder," Nick advised as he turned his body back around facing Judy's direction.

"Alright, you two got a point," Omar submitted in a friendly manner. "It saves my back the trouble from pulling out those stupid curtains. Anyway, I have to go back to cleaning the kitchen, so call me whenever you need anything."

The two police officers bid him a friendly farewell, which the desert mammal took in appreciation and walked back to his diner's kitchen.

Once again, Nick and Judy were left alone to themselves, food held back into their hands and ready to continue eating them.

Unfortunately, as they were about to even place just one bite; something that should've been expected interrupted the moment. The early noise and cheers from the speciest spectators grew immensely louder than ever before, more than enough to be unbearable for the two police officers who were far away from the entire ordeal. The excited screaming was so great, they were sure that the windows would shatter if it were only a couple decibels higher.

Judy was caught off guard by the colossal uproar, her ears quickly stood upward as a fast-paced reaction. The rabbit's eyes widened in surprised as her whole body froze in that instant, staring at her partner across from her side of the table, who shared the same kind of reaction.

Being animals with acute hearing, the intense cheers actually irritated their ears with a slight sensation of pain, despite the fact that they were far away from the rally and inside a building. However, it was a more discomforting for Judy, since rabbits were animals that were renowned for possessing more sensitive hearing. But like her boyfriend in front of her, she managed to quickly adapt herself to the situation and collect her bearings.

They both turned their attentions to the glass windows at the front entrance once again, curious to see on what strengthen the already destructive cheers. And the two officers got their answer.

Walking up to the stage from the stairs located at its sides was a well-dressed hippo, escorted by two bodyguards while he smile and waved at crowd in front of him as he gingerly stepped on the platform.

There weren't too many visible distinctions between him and the other hippos in the rally, particularly the private security guards. What made him noticeably different in appearance were only a few, non-important factors, but there was two that obviously stood out. Mainly was his height, he appeared a little shorter than others in his species, roughly five or so inches smaller than what's considered a hippo's average. However, this doesn't appear to bother the man very much, as he continued smiling and waving to the crowd while he walked closer to the podium.

"And I was starting to think the lovely king of the nutcases would never show up," Nick commented in smug sarcasm as he watched the hippo from his seat.

"Don't let whatever that blowhard say about predators get to you," Judy advised as her eyes narrowed towards the sight of Christian Preston, looking somewhat angry and irritated to his presence.

"You still worry too much, Carrots," Nick replied as he swirled himself back to facing Judy and his food. "His fat prejudice ego hasn't gotten to me before, and will _still_ not get to me now."

The female rabbit could only react with a bright smile, admiring (and loving) her partner's strength for calmly bearing the aggressive behaviors from people like Grump and his supporters. Her gesture was returned with Nick's own comforting and smug-like smile, but secretly conveyed an affectionate message of love; something that only she (and Nick) could see.

" _Hello, hello?"_ Echoed the voice of the rally leader through the large loud speakers placed all around the Gila. _"Testing one-two-three, testing one-two-three."_

Everyone in the gathering began to cheer and scream loudly, once more.

"And here we go," Nick said as he braced for the upcoming 'event'.

Judy brought her ears down and placed her hands on where her ear canals should be, pressing on them tightly in an attempt to block any more immensely loud noises caused by the cheers and screams from Preston's supporters.

" _Aw, you are all just the best, and I do mean_ thee _best out there, but I'm a bit disappointed on the cheers you're giving me,"_ the hippo said in pridefully smug and dismissive tone through the microphone.

"He's lucky to get cheers at all," Judy grumbled her thoughts out loudly, her hands still pressing onto her ear holes.

Nick made a brief chuckle after hearing his best friend's comment.

" _You are all strong prey species! The dominant classes of animals all over the world! And better yet, you are all my lovely people! Now cheer out loud like you mean it! And I do mean LOUD!"_ Preston shouted through the loudspeakers.

Another wave of screaming cheers and yells clouded the plaza, considering to be the strongest one in terms of volume and audacity. It was loud enough to leave echoes that reached different nearby areas within Zootopia, even going so far as to cloud out various other noises from activities that were happening on the other side of the Gila's walled buildings.

All of the windows and glass furniture's inside of the nearby stores vibrated in reaction to the stronger levels of increased decibels. Some weren't able to withstand the force and formed large cracks.

It didn't help that the ralliers began to ferociously thump and stomp their feet on to the plaza's ground, creating a series of rippling shakes that could be felt throughout the territory like the starting stages to an earthquake. In the most part, the tremors were harmless and had no potential to come close to causing mid-scale damages. Unfortunately, it was strong enough to cause a few things to fall off the shelves and hit the ground hard, causing some volatile objects to break into pieces.

For Nick and Judy, they could easily handle the pseudo-earthquake happening around them without too much worry in mind, but they were growing concerned for the other three police officers stationed extremely close to the crowd. On the noise itself, it felt like their eardrums were about to explode, but were still able to keep themselves (relatively) together and resist the destructive uproar head-on.

The vulpine officer was quickly copied his partner's idea by covering his ears with his palms to deflect some of the noise. It was doing pretty good for him, but most of the loudness still reached the inside of his ears and caused plenty of pain to his head.

Judy wasn't fairing any better. Being a prey species with sensitive hearing, she was going through the worst of it, having to roll up her ear lobes to form additional 'barriers' to block more of the noise. She was pushing on to her ear canals so hard, it felt like she may end up accidentally shoving them inside her head. However, like her partner, she was able to keep herself steady without any signs of falling apart, despite all of the pain she was going through.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of pain for the duo, the loud noise lowered in volume until it dimmed to a few shouts and claps that were mostly blocked by the restaurant's walls. The trembling stopped immediately after, leaving the ground back to its stern and stable self.

Despite the ringing they now have in their eardrums, mixed with some slight pain, the two ZPD officers let out a breath in relief.

Not long after, Omar ran back out of the kitchen in a frantic hurry. The look on the camel's face was filled with surprised shock, confusion, anger and a bit of fear as he panted quick and short breaths.

"What in the world just happened out there?!" Omar shouted in a voice that matched his current mood as he stood beside the fox-rabbit pair.

Nick was the first to respond while he laid his hands off his ears. He saw Judy did the same action, her rolled-up ear lobes unwrapping like a dropped roll of paper towels as they fell to her sides. "The king of the nutshells, himself, wanted a screaming match to see how much his little gathering loves him. Nothing very special."

" _My, my, MY! That was just an absolutely amazing display! I could really feel the support and loyalty you are all really giving off now. You're all beautiful. I love you all. Now how about we take a short breather before we continue. And. . . oh, why not?! Let's wait another ten minutes for any late-comers stuck in traffic!"_ Preston's voice blurted out the intercom, adding more proof to Nick's point.

"He better pay off the damages that he and his group caused," Omar said bitterly as he watched the display. "I already count over a dozen cracked windows in the nearby stores that I see, all owned by hardworking people of the Square."

"Don't they have insurance?"

"Some of them but not all. Can't the ZPD do anything about this?"

"Afraid not, man. This is all caused by ralliers that wanted to exercise their freedoms of speech, which only their screaming cracked the windows, not _physically_ the ralliers themselves."

"So, there really is not a lot the police can do for this?" Omar asked the fox under a somber expression of disappointment and anger, but not directly aimed towards him.

"Actually, there is something that _can_ be done," Judy interrupted in a tone of sharp confidence, attracting the attention of the two other animals. "Report complaints, photo evidence and provide eyewitnesses to the ZPD."

"What?" Questioned the camel and fox.

"Allow me to explain," she began in an expression full of excited pride.

"Be sure to keep it short, okay, Judy?" Nick butted in before she could start. "The last thing you want is to overcomplicate things by making it like an hour long session."

"I never take things _that_ long to explain," Judy protested.

Nick was about to reply with a rebuttal, but was quickly interrupted by being slightly shoved by an elbow belonging to Omar.

"If it's anything that will grant us some kind of edge to get a little compensation from that fat-headed idiot, then please, go ahead and say it," the camel suggested, somewhat eagerly.

The proud smile returned on Judy's face as she felt the joy to begin explaining. "While Nick is right about Preston's supporters not inflicting the damages _physically_ , they still hold responsibility on inflicting them, as well as committing other disturbances that can be reported to the police with the right amount of support."

The two animals remained silent while they listened to the lagomorph, it definitely plenty of Omar's attention as he showed the biggest amount of interest, but had some visible signs of confusion.

Nick was a little more confused about it than Omar, but began to figure out what his partner was getting at and waited for her to continue.

"I'll explain my points more in-depth," Judy continued. "Preston's supporters made a lot of noise that were beyond considerably safe limits, which damaged glass windows in some of the stores and might've hurt anyone outside of the plaza. Before I continue, I have to ask; are all of the shopkeepers still present in their buildings, right now?"

"Of course! This is the Gila, a lot of exciting things happen here, and it's always a busy day for us whenever a scheduled event begins to be set up," Omar answered proudly. "But a couple of them are away for today, most of them predator families who want to avoid the mess happening outside. Though, they're shops are still open and managed by trusted employees."

"Good! Last question, how connected is everyone here?"

"Connected?"

"You know, is everyone here on friendly terms? Does everyone here know each other? Are there any hatreds. . ."

"Ah, I see! This plaza is like a neighborhood for us people working in it, so yes, we all know each other in a relatively friendly way. There are some bitter rivalries between a few of shop owners, but nothing very serious. Anyone who has worked here nearly as long as I have, are bound to be in some kind of acquaintance with one-another."

"Great!" Judy beamed. "Seeing that you all have a bit of a community going on here, you can try to have all of the other shopkeepers ban together and file complaints against Preston and the rally for property damages to the ZPD. I would also suggest that you put more focus on the people that own the shops with the most damages, _especially_ with the ones that were still here when the rallier's screams started to really break things. Not only that, but since this plaza is under plenty of surveillance, I strongly recommend you bring whatever visual recordings you can find that show the windows breaking when Preston's supporters started screaming. Try to get support from anyone outside of the plaza to help you too, mainly anybody that was irritated or hurt by the screams from the rally."

"Woah, easy there, Carrots," Nick lightly warned with a warm laugh. "I thought this was about helping him get money for the damages, not organize a movement against that guy and his wackos."

"It is! I'm just giving him some ideas on what he can do to get a better angle over Preston, while doing so. There's nothing illegal against that."

"I doubt our lovely buffalo-butt will appreciate the increased flow of complaints about that hippo, and he'll be more ticked off if he found out that you had anything to do about it."

" _Nick_ , we're cops," Judy responded smugly, the same kind of attitude that instantly reminded the fox when she first hustled him. "It's our jobs to help out the people of Zootopia in any way we can, and what I'm doing now is further improving relations between the ZPD and the wider community."

Omar interrupted the conversation with another round of hearty and bumptious laughter, practically the loudest one he ever did in the whole day. Once he was done, he looked towards Nick with a happy and excited smile, and gave him a hard slap on the back, something that made the fox wince from the pain. "I _LOVE_ this girl!"

"Easy on that hand, buddy," Nick said as he bared with the pain from Omar's hit.

"Sorry."

"Also. . ." Judy trailed off a bit to catch the two animals' attentions, once again. "I just have to say, for the sake of me and Nick, I can't fully guarantee you that all of the tips I said would work out in the end."

"Yeah, Omar, don't forget that Preston's little movement has been making a lot of other people in the city angry, angry enough to post hundreds of complaints to the police to try and shut it down," Nick elaborated to aid his lagomorph counterpart, while massaging the pained spot on his back. "Our chief is still going through dozens of those complaints on the clock, and to say that he hates it is an understatement."

"And do remember that these kind of rallies are still considered legal and are under the act of practicing freedom of speech, making things much harder too. . ."

"I see. . ." Omar replied under a very thoughtful gaze.

"But that still doesn't grant them protection from damaging property," Judy explained with her joyful attitude. "With enough support and evidence, you can still have a chance to make claim for reparations. Just be sure to not constantly bother Chief Bogo about it often."

Omar replied with a soft chuckle. "Such the intelligent individual you are! Now only if the entire ZPD could be just as smart as you."

Judy giggled to the compliment and suppressed a mild blush.

"Easy there, Omar, you don't want to overindulge that ego of hers," Nick said with his same sly demeanor. "Because I'm the one who usually suffers from it."

"Good. Someone is needed to balance it out, while keeping you out of trouble."

"Yeah, that rarely happens, Omar," Nick replied with a tone of smug pride. "With these handsome looks and _lovely_ personality all put in one fox, I'm the one practically getting us out of trouble."

Judy rolled her eyes from hearing what her partner just said, but quickly went back to watching him with a smile.

"Uh-huh, that just proves what I said" Omar stated in nonchalant disbelief. "Now, I'm going to head out for a little bit and start talking about this with the owner of the small clothing store close by."

"You're going to start now?" Judy asked.

"Only with her, at this time. I'll spread the word to everyone else once things get quieter outside," the camel clarified. "You don't mind watching over the lobby for a few minutes, don't you?"

"Of course not! We're going to be staying in here for our whole break, anyway," the rabbit officer answered, ecstatically.

"Thank you. I shouldn't be gone for too long, and I'll place the away sign by the door just to be sure."

After giving some confirming nods, the two officers watched Omar head to the front entrance of his diner and retrieved a blank, flat sign from a slot underneath the reception stand. The camel fiddled around with the object for a few seconds, writing down 'Owner currently out. Be back soon," in credible and bold writing. As soon as the pair see the desert mammal firmly place the sign on door's glass, he walked out of the establishment and disappeared from sight.

"I hope he won't get confronted by anyone in the rally," Judy aid with a bit of concern.

"Nah, he shouldn't. Remember, pro-Preston supporters mainly bother predators or anyone that's openly against them. As crazy as they tend to be, they wouldn't yell at a random camel walking to a clothing store," Nick stated.

"True, but what we've seen firsthand, they _do_ tend to be aggressive enough to scream at just about everybody."

"Don't worry about Omar, Carrots. He may be in his twilight years, but he can handle himself against them, and I'm talking from experience. His yells could have a chance on scaring someone like Chief Bogo."

"He does have the volume for it, that's for sure," the female rabbit replied, happily.

"No kidding, not even Finnick would want to risk getting on his bad side."

Suddenly, before Judy could mutter a word, the sound of a tremendous boom from an explosion clouded all noise throughout the plaza, even blocking out any of the racket made from Preston's rally.

The explosion was more than loud enough to leave echoes that reached through the vicinity of the entirety of the Sahara's Square, if not being heard by most denizens in the whole city. This caused hundreds of many Zootopians to immediately stop what they were doing, out of surprise and shock, as many of them attempted to process on what was going on. Most of them were immensely calm but cautious, while others began to worry that was borderline panicking. Thankfully, despite the growing air of fear, they all remained cool-minded enough to not thrash into a massive panic mob.

Once again, the ground began to shake and tremor like a mild earthquake. It wasn't strong enough to cause injuries to anyone in the vicinity, but it was definitely stronger than the one created by the ralliers, earlier. Some animals outside on the Plaza weren't able to keep a steady footing and lost their balance, falling on to the pavement.

Some of the buildings started to emit a light groaning and creaking noise from the strong tremoring, and the diner was among them. However, despite the ferocity of the shaking, it didn't seem to cause any catastrophic damage as their structural integrity was sturdy enough to prevent anything from breaking apart.

As for the diner, it was still holding itself together rather well.

Unfortunately, many small and light weight objects did not have the same kind of resistance to the shaking. Anything in the diner that was made by brittle materials such, as glass, broke into dozens of small, sharp pieces and littered the floor. Other objects fell hard on the ground as well, the picture frames and exotic trinkets were knocked out of their designated spots and scattered around the diner like neglected toys. Some of the fallen wall decorations broke apart into smaller pieces like some of the glass furnishings, while there were others that only received dents and scratches.

Fortunately, this kind of seismic activity didn't last very long, despite the damages it had caused. It lasted nearly a minute before the tremors went into a complete halt, leaving everything on the ground perfectly still and motionless.

"What the. . .?" Nick trailed off as he looked around the now messy interior of the Sand Tunneler's Diner, confused and on full alert from the disarray caused by the explosion and the short quake it created.

Judy placed her hand on the radio on her vest and activated it. "This is Hopps to Officers Grizzoli, McHorn, and Delgato. What happened out there?"

All she received was loud static coming out of her radio.

Before any of them began to question further on what was happening, screams of utter fear and terror echoed from the center of the plaza, specifically, the rally itself.

The two police officers quickly turned to look at the cracked glass of the entrance to have a glimpse on what was going on. While they couldn't see everything in good detail as they were far away from the crowd, what they could see already filled them with worry and urgency.

Through their eyes, they saw the mass of pro-Preston supporter's moving far more erratically than normal, looking like as though they were getting ready to escape from something terrible. It all looked like an unstable, rippling tide of scared animals all in one place, all bravado and pride was gone, and all that was left was shock and fear to get away. Some were actually running out of the Gila in a complete hurry, either alone or in small groups.

But what made Nick and Judy worry the most, was that they saw some people being carried or dragged out by friends and fellow supporters in a drastic manner. The ones being ferried away were clearly unconscious from the blast, or sustained injuries that prevented them from walking (but not life-threatening).

It didn't help that there was dark smoke coming out of the center of the podium from where Christian Preston was presenting his speech from. Most of the banners on the stage were clearly on fire and burning from the flames, but they were far too high off the ground to harm anyone bellow.

Either way, it wasn't a good sign.

And the rabbit-fox duo knew that they were definitely needed to help out the best they can and call for additional aid.

"There's a lot of smoke on that stage, Judy. I don't see anyone left standing there, not even Preston."

The lagomorph jumped off her seat and landed her feet on the ground, as she avoided stepping on pieces of sharp glass, and made her way beside the fox.

"We have to get out there and find the guys!" She ordered, and began to carefully make her way out the door. Doing her best to avoid the pieces of broken and sharp objects littering the floor.

"Hey! Fluff! Wait up! Watch your step!" Nick shouted to the running bunny in hurried bunny in alerted warning as he too got off his seat. With care and caution, he ran after Judy out of the diner, quickly barging the entrance door open while he made his way outside.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Hello, once again! Damie243, here!**

 **As you all see, I finally finished Chapter 2 and will be working on the third one, soon.**

 **First off, I am sorry that it felt like this took pretty long to come out, a lot of crazy things have been happening in my end, which has gotten me and my family incredibly busy on important matters. Also, I just got a part-time job, making my time much more busier than usual. So, as much as I hate to say it; progress on this fic will be a little slower than usual because of everything going on, but I will try my damnest to keep this thing flowing as much as an "acceptable" pace as much as I can. PLEASE, bear with me! I still have so many plans with this fic, and I'm not ending it, anytime soon.**

 **Second, to all that have took the time to read this fic, favor it, follow, leave a review, or just imply checked it out: Thank you. Thank you very much for doing these things, I appreciate it a lot (despite this only being so early in the story).**

 **Lastly, as of progress for the next two or so chapters, expect them to be a little shorter and not as word heavy. My beta readers have been telling me that the amount of words and descriptions I put into this fic can be a bit too much, if not overwhelming most readers. To be frank, I can see that. So, I'll try not to be as heavily descriptive in the future, and minimize my word count.**

 **I hold no promises, though! Because adding so much words and descriptions is a big (and bad habit for me (practically a drug), but I will try to shorten some things.**

 **Anyway, to anyone that's new to seeing this fic, PLEASE leave a follow if you enjoy it, and any kind of review or comment (including constructive criticism) would be GREATLY appreciated. If you love it enough to fave, I'd love that too (but that's optional, and knowing that you taking the time to read my work is more than enough).**

 **Good day, everyone!**


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